#the curse of writing and unreleased character

[baishouqijia]

my pantalone theories copium

[traffic-was-a-b1tch]

wrapped around your finger

(jake kiszka x reader) 18+

author’s note: I RECOMMEND NOT READING THE SUMMARY BEFORE READING THIS FIC! if you want to have the full effect of the story, don’t spoil it for yourself! now for those of you who don’t know, along with gvf, I am a huge 5 seconds of summer fan. I wrote this fic based on one of their unreleased songs (my favorite of all time), wrapped around your finger. I recommend reading the fic first and then listening to the song on youtube after. I loveddd the experience of writing this fic because I got to live out the events of the song through my own character and I think that’s always fun! anyway, enjoy the story!

summary: jake takes you out for a night you’ll never forget. but when the morning comes, will he still be the man you thought he was?

warnings: SMUT!, unprotected p in v (WRAP IT UP!), oral (f rec), loss of v card (unknowingly), cursing, theft, angst, arguing, misogyny, underage drinking (I do not condone)

• • •

the clock read 6:37 pm and you were just coming back up to your room after mom’s chicken and rice dinner.

you had to kick a few boxes of pictures to the side on your way up the stairs. the new house was pretty but still unfamiliar. it had only been 4 months since your parents uprooted you from everything you knew and moved the family to california for your dad’s new job. the transition was tough at the beginning, but now was just boring. you had nothing to do. ever.

you plopped down on the edge of your bed that wasn’t covered in papers. you had decided to leave all your homework piled there, too lazy and overwhelmed to continue anymore. if mrs. turner thought that you were gonna finish her set of 50 algebraic expressions by monday, she was on crack. it was friday, damn it. why was everyone being so freaking difficult lately? couldn’t you catch a break? you eyed the pictures displayed on your wall, the contrast and vibrancy made you break into a small smile. you wished you were out taking pictures. you hadn’t got a chance yet, to capture your new city on film. it was calling to you…but so was your notebook and pen. you glared at them, frustrated. you needed something other to do than homework right now, but still you reluctantly grabbed them, starting on the next problem.

you don’t even know how much time had passed while you were scribbling math before you heard the tiny click. perking your ears up, you looked around to see what made the noise. you scanned around you. nothing in your room was out of the ordinary. the closet door was open as well, letting you see clearly that nothing was hiding in it. you suspiciously looked around one more time before going back to your equation.

so, if x equals the equivalent of 172 radical 4…

another click.

you recognized the direction the sound was coming from then, head focusing in on the window near your bed. you waited, wanting to see what was going on. after a few seconds, a pebble came flying up and smacked into the glass.

you got up and walked over to the window, peeking out to see if you could catch a glimpse of the person, at least you hoped it was a person, down below. a shadowed body was barely visible, the face too dark to tell any features.

damn it. you were hoping you wouldn’t have to do this. you were barely dressed in pjs, definitely not for unknown guests, and you had no makeup on.

slowly, you unlocked the window and pulled up, sticking your head out. just then, a rock came hurling up at you fast. you gasped and ducked, the solid circle traveling through the air and into your room. luckily for you, it landed on the carpeted floor so it didn’t make much noise. the last thing you needed was your parents to know someone was outside trying to get your attention this late in the evening.

you hesitantly peeked your head back out, seeing a pair of empty hands waving.

“hey! sorry!” a man’s voice called up, too loud when considering your parents’ keen ears.

“shhh”, you whisper-yelled back, “who’s down there?”

“it’s jake, from english”, he lowered his voice a little, “sorry for being so loud, I just wanted to see what you were doing tonight.”

you were a bit shocked and wondered if you had heard correctly. he wanted to see what you were doing tonight? what did that mean? I mean, you and jake weren’t particularly friends. sure, you saw him in class or the halls and he joked about teachers with you, but you wouldn’t say you two were friends. you definitely weren’t on the “show up at my door after dinner and throw rocks at my window, why don’t you” level. so, you had no clue why he would be here. you knew you didn’t have friends yet, but a childish thought popped in your brain. what if he liked you? no, that’s stupid. you hadn’t ever had much action back home anyway, so to think he liked you already when you had just gotten here was a delusion. but still, the question stood. why was he here?

“well, I was working on mrs. turner’s packet. I’m probably going to try to finish it tonight”, you hesitated, “why? what are you doing here?”

he finally came into view, stepping underneath the light shining from your bedroom. you took him in and became almost speechless. he was clad in dark denim jeans and a cream long-sleeve shirt halfway tucked in, buttoned only up to his nipples, where they would be anyway (you weren’t thinking about his nipples, definitely not), and completed with a ball cap. you had never really saw him like this before, relaxed and rugged. maybe it was just the soft yellow lights from your room that made him look this handsome. definitely the lights.

“well I, uh, was in the area”, he began, “you know, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out?”

what? the hell? you couldn’t help but think that jake being outside your window asking you to hang out was just a cruel joke. or maybe, just maybe, it was fate? what if him being here was for a reason? what if this random hang out with a new classmate would be the best thing for you? the thought ate at your logic-loving brain. you had to tell yourself to shut up.

“um”, you thought for a second, “I’m not exactly dressed to go anywhere.” you laughed a bit awkwardly, looking at your pink rainbow pajama set.

“come on”, he urged, opening his arms out wide, “live a little.”

his words hit you. you hadn’t really had a social life lately, having no real time to get friends or join extracurriculars. you almost gasped when you realized.

you were lame.

sure, you never were the life of the party, even back home. but you wanted to be. you wanted to be the girl that people envied. with this move, you could make cooler decisions and nobody would know better.

“you know what, fine. where are we going?”

he broke out into a grin, “it’s a surprise.”

a twinge of doubt and fear hit your brain but you shook it away. maybe he was right. you needed to live a little.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

you changed quickly into a pair of jean shorts and a white t-shirt. grabbing your phone, you snuck down the stairs, past your parents’ room, and out the door.

you met him in the backyard, his back leaned up against the side of your white house. he seemed a bit taller than you remembered, towering over you.

he smirked, “you ready?”

smiling slyly back, you replied with a nod.

he cocked his head to the side, pointing to the direction you two were going to walk. you followed him, still a bit nervous but powering through. you hated the idea of not being cool enough to do fun, spontaneous things like this. he led you to the road and you started making the trek to wherever you were going.

“soooo”, he put his hands in his pockets, “where did you move from?”

“georgia.”

“ahhh, southern girl huh?”

you laughed, “yeah I guess. not too obvious?”

“nah. I would’ve guessed east coast, but now that I look at you”, he took in your appearance up and down, “you have that southern belle kinda look.”

you rolled your eyes with a smile, “oh really? what about me says southern belle?”

he shrugged, “you look sweet.”

you shut up at that. you weren’t sure why a small compliment from him would shake you up so much, but you couldn’t deny how attracted you were to him.

he chuckled, “what? I can’t say that? ok.” he shook his head with amusement, “you have any plans coming up?”

you shook your head almost immediately and laughed, “I don’t do much.”

he smiled and laughed with you, “well, there’s a party tomorrow night at jenny stewart’s house. I heard it was gonna be fun so i’ll probably go. you should come, it’s at 9.”

you fought the urge to raise your eyebrows in surprise at him. was he really flirting? instead you just nodded and said “maybe.”

he smirked and changed the subject, “so how are you liking santa cruz?”

you reflected on the time you’ve spent here and became underwhelmed. “well, the people are nice”, you slightly tilted your head towards jake, making him smile. “and…I don’t know. I haven’t made many friends yet and kinda get caught up in school, I guess. I haven’t had a chance to really experience everything here.”

“mmm. well, then I guess it was a good thing that you have me tonight.”

he stopped at a crosswalk and grabbed your shoulders. it caught you by surprise, and you tried not to shiver at his touch. “I have a question for you.”

“yes?” you answered a bit too quickly.

jake looked down before making eye contact, “can I have you tonight?” you immediately raised your eyebrows in confusion, and he continued, shaking his head. “can I have your time? show you what is great about this place?”

a small smile tugged at your mouth from his thoughtfulness and you nodded.

“yeah?” his eyes looked hopeful and sweet as he became excited, nearly jumping for joy. he settled a bit before saying, “ok, first things first:”, his eyebrows jumped, “race ya.”

he took off down the crosswalk, the sign still illuminated with a red hand. he was fearless, dodging two cars to make it to the other side. before you could talk yourself out of it, you chased him, nearly screaming when a car honked his horn at you loudly. when you caught up, you pushed him playfully and he laughed heartily. the rest of the walk was about 10 minutes, silence non-existent. he’d managed to get you to open up. you talked about your life in georgia, your old friends, your school. he filled you in on what happened in santa cruz before you. the conversation was easy and fun, flowing freely.

he led you to a mcdonald’s, the golden arches shining above you. this was a bit surprising, as you didn’t exactly picture a mcdonald’s being a particularly important part of santa cruz.

“follow my lead”, he smirked as he pulled the door and went inside.

there were a few employees inside mopping and a couple in the kitchen. jake swaggered up to the register and dinged the bell on the counter in front of him. one of the employees in the kitchen walked over and mindlessly asked what he would like to order.

“two big macs please”, jake said a little too confident, “and two drinks.”

the worker handed you two the cups and left to get the burgers.

“hey”, he whispered in your ear, “get me a coke, will ya? i’m gonna initiate phase 2.”

you looked at him questioning, but he waved you off and you listened. you went to the fountain, filled your cups with soda, and when you turned back around you saw what jake was up to. he was slinking to the part of the store that an employee had just mopped and, because there was no wet floor sign, turned back to you and winked. with one move he flung his head back and pulled his feet up, falling on his back, hard. you put your arm over your mouth to cover your shocked mouth. you started to giggle a bit at what just happened and jake, groaning, jerked his head at you to come over. you got the hint and gasped before setting the drinks down and rushing over to him.

“oh my gosh! are you ok?” you rubbed his arm as he twisted and turned in mock pain.

“oh no! no, no, no! I am not ok! who would have known that they were mopping there? there was no sign! oh, my back! having no sign for a slippery floor is so dangerous for your customers!”

you nodded and then shook your head, “so dangerous!”

by this time, all the employees had stopped to see this and the manager had come out to see what was going on.

the manager rubbed his bald head as he took in the scene and asked, “are you ok, sir?”

“no”, jake answered, “i’m not ok! I got hurt because of your negligence! i’m gonna sue!” jake crossed his arms and you followed, trying to seem genuinely mad.

“well, don’t do that!”, the manager bent to help jake up as he chuckled uncomfortably. “we can offer you coupons or free food or-“

jake, standing with a stuck up look on his face, cut him off, “I would imagine that my meal today is free!” he thought for a second. “in fact, I would like additional food to help with”, he fought back giggles, “my healing.”

“of course, of course”, the manager snapped his fingers at the employees. “whatever you need, sir!”

you two proceeded to order just about everything on the menu.

“…and two mcflurry’s”, you added at the end. out of the corner of your eye you saw jake smile at you, full of an emotion but you weren’t sure which it was.

only a few minutes later, all your food was in bags and you were walking out the door with too much to carry and zero money lost. as soon as you two were out the door and around the corner, you started laughing hysterically.

“when you- I didn’t know that you would- that was-“, you laughed.

he did too, smiling at you and then doing something unexpected: he put his arm around you. you tried not to let it phase you, clutching the food a bit tighter, but you loved the weight of his arm around your shoulder.

“you know, i’m surprised that you got into it as much as you did. you don’t seem like a troublemaker.”

you rolled your eyes, “well, i’ve never done that before, that’s for sure. but, I don’t mind a bit of trouble.”

he smirked at you, impressed, “good. we’re gonna get in way more trouble tonight, just wait.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

you eventually turned a few corners and reached a big chain link fence. you couldn’t see what was beyond it very well, as there were quite a few buildings blocking your view.

he grabbed the bottom corner of the chain, which had been cut, and pulled it back. he looked back at you with a grin, “you ready?”

you couldn’t really believe you were about to follow a cute boy you didn’t know, who you talked to about your past and robbed a mcdonald’s with, through a cut fence to a unknown place.

you laughed a bit through your words at the absurdity of the situation, “yeah, I am.”

he offered his hand, his eyes hopeful. it occurred to you then that you were definitely going to take his hand. you couldn’t stop the night, too far in to quit now. even if you could, there was no part of you that would decline. you were his for the night.

you accepted his hand and he smiled. he bent down, squeezing himself through before helping you, the sharp edges around you catching on your clothes. you ease out and grab the food that you left on the other side. once you were all together, he stopped you before you could move.

“ok, do you know where we are?”

you looked around yourself breifly before answering, “nope.”

“good. i’m gonna go do something really quick and I need you to stay here.”

you nodded, a little sad he was leaving you.

“promise?” his eyes searched your face for sincerity.

“I promise.” you smiled and fought the urge to tell him that you wanted to promise your life to him. you kept all your thoughts inside as he grabbed the food and raced away through the alley of the building.

you shook at your thoughts, “ugh! stop it! you don’t know this guy! you need to stop before you embarrass yourself.” you took a deep breath, closing your eyes to center yourself. opening them back up, you saw jake coming back through the alley. his sleeves were rolled up and his ball cap had turned around, now facing backwards as he jogged up to meet you. you nearly passed out. what was it you said about not embarrassing yourself…

“you ready?” he pulled you out of your trance and you had to remember to answer.

nodding, you watched his body get behind you and place his strong hands over your eyes.

“ok, we’re gonna walk forward, but go slow.” his voice was right on your ear, low and raspy. you could barely concentrate, but you put one foot in front of the other and walked.

he led you through the alley, and from there you had no idea where you were. you relied on him to guide you, leaning back on him a bit. you almost tripped over a rock of some kind, letting out a funny scream-like noise. he chuckled in your ear behind you, making you almost shiver at his voice. god, this was getting hard.

“and… stop.”

finally, he pulled you back and stopped walking. he kept his hands over you eyes as he talked.

“before I show you, what do you hear?”

you listened closely.

“wind.”

“good”, he praised and you tried not to smile. “what do you smell?”

you sniffed the air, slowly.

“um”, you giggled at your answer, “fishy air?”

he laughed deeply in your ear, “good. now, what can you taste?”

you opened your mouth and stuck your tongue out a little.

“hmmm, salt?”

“very good. now, are you ready to see?”

“for goodness sake, jake, we’ve been walking forever and I played your games, I think i’m ready-“ you tugged his hands off your eyes and lost all your words as you took in where you were.

the beach was beautiful under the moonlight, lighting up the waves as they crashed and sprayed. the water met the sand in a beautiful blue-tinted dark spot, and a few feet in front of it lied a blanket and our mcdonald’s bags. it was a picnic on the beach under the moon. you wanted someone to pinch you.

“jake- I-“, you couldn’t find the words if you tried.

“do you like it?”, his voice hopeful while his fingers grazed your arms lightly, his presence ever comforting behind you.

you looked back at him, “I love it.”

he grinned and grabbed your hand, leading you to the picnic.

“where did you find a blanket here?”

he smiled fondly, as if at memories you had brought up with your question. “my family used to come here all the time, so I always loved it. now that, you know, i’m grown and we don’t go out much, I come by myself. I keep a blanket in one of those lockers over there, just in case.” he pointed to a wall of lockers for people to stow their belongings while at the beach.

“and what about…“, you answered your own question by turning around and seeing what the buildings blocking your view of the beach were. “suites and private beach houses? wow, people have money.”

he laughed and helped you sit down on the blanket, fingers accidentally brushing your lower back. you locked eyes at the touch, dangerously fast, and you looked away before anyone could say anything. if you would’ve stared into his eyes for just a second longer, who knows would’ve happened.

finally, you both sat and got comfortable on the blanket over the squishy sand. he frowned, sighed, and shook his head.

your eyebrows furrowed at his actions, “what?”

he sighed again and made eye contact, “i’m just-“. he contemplated his words, looking up into the sky and then dropping his head to the sand before looking back at you. “i’m just really…”, his eyes danced around your face as he leant in, almost unaware he was doing so. it seemed like he was being pulled towards you, and you back to him. you followed his lead and leant in a little. he licked his lips, smiled sheepishly, and pulled away. “i’m just really hungry.”

you both nodded fast and you tried to shake the memory from your head. giving him a sweet smile, you grabbed a big mac out of the bag.

you two ate and talked for a good hour. half of the humongous bags were empty and there was nothing but happiness radiating from your spot on the beach. he had found himself on his elbows laying back, and you on one elbow looking down at him. he was so fucking charming. and it was going to be the death of you. you laughed at his horrible jokes and he smiled up at you, putting a fry between his teeth. you tried your best not to stutter or lose your train of thought, but it was so hard with him. he was just- perfect. and that was a dangerous thought.

“so”, you began after catching your breath from the joke, “what do you want to do? in life, I mean.”

he thought for a second, his head moving side to side. “realistically? or my dream?”

you smiled, “your dream.”

he grinned back, “musician.”

you rolled your eyes, laughing, “is that why I always see you playing that sg?”

his brows furrowed as a questioning look donned his face. “you see me play? when?”

your face blushed a bit, realizing how creepy the next sentence was going to sound. “after lunch. my next class is- well- when I leave- I pass the music hall on the way to my health class.”

he smiled at your embarrassment. “and you spy on me?”

“no! no, of course not! I just- see you through the window,” you backtracked, “like because it’s really big and I just catch a glimpse. I don’t watch you or anything-“

he threw his head back and laughed. you grunt in frustration, nothing you say making the situation sound less weird.

“it’s ok, it’s ok”, he fought to stop laughing, “I know you weren’t being creepy.” then, he raised an eyebrow at you. “wait, how did you know it was an sg?”

you shook your head, “my dad is a collector. it’s dumb but he always made me go with him to look in the vintage shops.”

jake smirked, “impressive.”

you shrugged, “I don’t know about that.”

he eyed you, “what about you? what’s your dream?”

you felt yourself get bubbly just thinking about it, a smile creeping on your lips. “a photographer.”

his eyes got bright, “pictures, huh? take one of me right now!” he stood, kicking up a bit of sand as he did, and struck a pirate-like pose.

you laughed and grabbed your phone, lining up the lighting and snapping a few shots.

he sat back down and urged you to show him, laughing at the situation. when you did, the joking left his face and was replaced by an expression of amazement and confusion.

“fuck, these are actually really good.” he looked up at you, “how did you get the shadows and highlights with just a phone camera?”

you shrugged, “i’m always just taking the picture by feeling. I get inspired and then it always just leads me to the perfect shot.”

he shook his head, still surprised at the quality, “this is perfect, don’t you realize? you could take pictures at my concerts!”

you laughed and nodded, “sure, jake.”

“i’m serious! you said you need inspiration and my music, especially the guitar solos, will definitely inspire you.” he tilted his head back and added, “plus I look super sexy when I play.”

you wanted to laugh, to play it off, but you didn’t want to admit how much that image was affecting you. you just decided to roll your eyes and shake your head, pushing the thought away.

“promise! say that you’ll be my personal photographer!” his enthusiasm was hard to turn down.

giggling, you agreed, “fine. but no nudes.”

he busted out laughing and shoved you.

after the laughs subsided, there was silence for the first time in the night, both of you too caught up in the eyes of the other. the tension was dangerous, waiting to erupt. still, there was a question still eating at you.

“jake?”

“yeah?”

“why this tonight? why me and the beach? why are you doing this?”

jake studied you, eyes drifting up and down your body. he motioned for you to come closer, his breath tickling your ear, “why not?”

you slowly turned your face to his, not backing up. you were eye to eye, foreheads almost touching and lips just inches from each other.

you broke the trance by placing a finger on his lips and pushing him backward. “race ya”, you challenged and took off towards the beach.

you heard him laugh from behind you, getting closer. you were about ankle deep in the water when he grabbed you around your stomach from behind, lifting you up and spinning you. water splashed up on both of you, drenching your clothes. giggles plagued both of you as he spun and then set you down.

you turned and saw his face…and you don’t think you’ve ever been the same since.

he was smiling, big. his hat had flown off in the run, the wind blowing his shirt open. his hair was flowing messily and his skin almost glowing in the moonlight. he was perfect. so amazing that you couldn’t find words to describe it. you hoped right then and there that this would last forever. you weren’t sure you’d ever get him out of your brain.

it was then you realized that your shirt had been soaked by the ocean, the white cloth sticking to the curves of your torso and becoming see-through. you looked down to see your light gray bra showing through, and looked back up to see jake’s smile gone. it was replaced with a look of deep desire. his mouth slightly parted, his eyes locked on your wet body. you stared at each other for a minute, your salty hair whipping at your face.

he came close, brushing a piece of your hair behind your ear, his hand resting on the side of your face. he leaned closer and nudged your noses, almost asking permission.

“jake…”, you trailed, begging him to keep going.

he came in so close that your lips were grazing each other, pausing just a second before closing the painful gap. he kissed you softly, and you sighed into it.

you knew then.

it didn’t matter anymore.

it doesn’t matter what else happens or doesn’t happen tonight.

you were his.

the connection was complete.

after a few seconds of sweetness, you kiss him harder. his hands find your waist, pulling you into his body. your hands hold his face on yours, slightly in his hair. he continues to kiss you deeply, hands roaming to your ass and then your legs, picking them up so he could carry you back to the blanket.

he made haste, nearly tripping from the sand on the way, making you squeal. he laid you down on the blanket gently, you legs wrapping around his waist naturally. you both giggled at the position you had found yourselves in, feeling the excitement and adrenaline. you could feel his hands shaking as they trailed up and down your sides. the kisses grew hungrier, both of you getting impatient. he disconnected your lips and sat back, panting. you watched from your laid position as he unbuttoned whatever was left of his shirt and shouldered it off. then he bent back down and lifted the edge of the shirt sticking to your stomach, pulling it up and over your head. your bra was removed shortly after, being tossed to the side. your chest laid bare in front of him, his breathing shook as he whispered under his breath, “you’re fucking gorgeous.” with that, he kissed you hard again, hands slowly cupping your breasts. you moaned softly in his mouth and it was obviously too much for him to handle, as he immediately fumbled for your jean shorts’ button. he undid them and tugged them off fast, throwing them to the side. he groaned as he took you in, only clad in your underwear. it was a white thong decorated with cherries and jake laughed when he saw it.

“cherries?” he smirked as he began to kiss his way down your chest, licking your nipple. you gasped and moaned as he continued down your stomach and reached the top of the thong.

he smirked and looked up at you. god, what a sight that was. his hair messed, his eyes dark and mischievous. he looked up at you like you were something to eat. and god, you hoped he had an appetite. “I wonder if you taste like cherries, too?”

you were speechless as his fingers hooked into them, inching them down and tossing them over his shoulder. automatically, your legs came together at the brisk air on your private parts.

“ah, come on baby”, he shook his head, “let me see her.”

he made eye contact with you and bit his lip as he placed each of his hands on your knees, prying them apart slowly. his eyes flicked down to your center and he took a throaty breath before he dipped his head down between your legs. hooking his arms around your thighs, he looked at you before lowering his face down and licking a long stripe up your core.

you moaned and threw your head back as he licked and sucked, already feeling like it was too good.

“fuck, you do taste like cherries”, he smirked, licking his lips, before diving back in. he teased you, going fast and then slow.

“jake, please”, you begged.

“what baby? use your words, honey.”

he stopped teasing and made out with you, only taking breaths to kiss your inner thigh. you squirmed and whimpered, his grip just getting tighter. your hands tangled in his hair and pulled, causing him to grunt and flick his tongue over you faster.

“jake- too much. I can’t-“, you pleaded.

“you can. you will.” he said it as a promise, like he had already made up his mind about it.

jake went faster, harder. he was making true on that promise. you felt your muscles tighten and your mouth fell open. you screamed as the orgasm hit you. he continued for just a minute more, working you through the rest of it, until you started to run from the overstimulation. he pulled back and admired the mess you made.

“fuck, cherry”, he panted, smiled, and came up to kiss you. “I almost couldn’t stop.”

you moaned as he kissed you, beginning to feel something hard and hot on your thigh. you gasped breathlessly, his bulge evidently turning you on. you reached down and touched him through his jeans. you didn’t even use much pressure and he was already groaning. too worked up for his own good, he tugged down his pants, and you couldn’t help but run your hands across his toned chest. as he removed his underwear, you sucked a small hickey into his neck as a little memento to remember your first time together. you were certain that this wouldn’t be the last.

jake finally got fully naked, lining himself up with you. your eyes met and he slowly started to push into you. he sighed in relief, like he was returning to his home inside your body. the stretch was painful at first, as he wasn’t small by any means, but when he started to move the pain went away. it felt so good. too good.

“fuck, baby. you’re gonna be the death of me.” he moved slowly, all the way in and almost all the way out.

the sensation was unlike anything you’d ever felt, the pleasure taking over your brain and making you a mindless zombie.

“jake, oh my-“, you couldn’t even finish, cut off by a powerful thrust that hit a spot in you that you didn’t know existed.

“I know, baby. give it to me.”

the rhythm got faster, fueled by the pleasure radiating from both of you. soon, he was fucking you hard. the sound of slapping skin and moans mixed with the background noise of waves crashing against the sand was intoxicating.

“oh fuck, baby. are you close?” he was falling apart, evident by the squeak in his voice.

“yes! fuck, jake!” you could barely get the words out, too caught up in the feeling. the warm buildup started in your belly and you knew it wouldn’t be long. his grunts became faster and louder as he pummeled into you as hard as he could. he looked you in the eyes and moaned your name loudly, like he didn’t care who heard him.

“jake…”, you groaned, feeling the buildup get to the edge.

“oh, fuck. me too. show me, baby. show me how good you feel. cum for me.” he groaned at the thought of you falling apart on him.

you did as he said. moments later, you felt like you were engulfed by a wave of pleasure so intense you shook. you never broke eye contact as you moaned his name and squeezed his dick like a vice.

“fuck-“, he came with a groan. he shuddered and panted as he painted your walls. his eyes drifted away and he hung his head in the crook of your neck.

still inside you, he whispered in your ear, “you’re so amazing.”

you felt a smile creep on your face as you scoffed lovingly. he brought himself back up to look at you, brushing a piece of your hair away from your face. the smiles on both your faces were sweet and sappy, taking in the warmth.

you wished that this moment would never end. this right here? this was heaven. in jake’s arms, on the beach, orgasm haze washing over you both. it was all you’d ever want, you were sure of it. all you’d ever want is him.

he pulled out, hissing at the feeling, and tearing you away from your thoughts. “so, let’s get you cleaned up then.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

he used a napkin from the food bag to clean you off and then you both got dressed. pulling on your shirt, you saw jake glance at his phone.

“oh shit. it’s 12:06 in the morning. I gotta get home.”

“oh”, you tried to hide your disappointment, “that’s ok. I probably should too.” you smiled, walking over and pulling him into a hug, and he smiled back.

the walk back to your house took almost 30 minutes but you welcomed the time, dreading the moment he’d have to leave. you talked the whole way back, laughing about the night and things that happened at school lately. you held hands, swinging them like elementary schoolers with their first boyfriend.

you reached your house and turned to face him, sad. “I don’t want you to go.”

a small, empathetic smile tugged at his lips as he pushed you back towards your home. “go. you don’t want your parents to wake up and find you gone, now do you?”

you looked him in his dark brown eyes and wished you could tell him that all you wanted was a hug from him. all you want is a life with him. he became all you wanted within a few hours, sweeping you off your feet instantly. you needed him.

but all you could manage to say was, “ok.”

you kissed him one more time, softly. he smiled and kissed your back, his hand coming around to grab your ass. you squealed and pushed him away.

“stop it! my parents are like a foot away.”

he laughed, “fine. i’ll see you around.”

and with that, he turned and walked away. you figured you should do the same too, backing up slowly. you got to your front door and turned back to look at him. you hoped to see him looking back at you, but he was gone. frowning, you slipped inside. quietly, you made it to your bedroom and sat on your bed.

holy fuck. what just happened? this was the greatest night of your life.

you tore off your still-wet clothes and grabbed a towel before running to the bathroom to shower. the warm water ran down your body, washing away the sand and salt. you could still feel his hands on you, and you smiled at the reminder. when you were done washing your face, you went back to your bedroom.

you gasped when you stepped on something unexpected, but then smiled when you realized what it was. it was the rock from earlier tonight; the one jake threw. you smiled and picked it up, putting it on your dresser next to your favorite pictures. it was now going to be displayed with your favorite things. when you laid down, the comfortable bed swallowed you up as you thought about the night. about him. about jake.

you smiled and yawned, the happy memories and warm sheets lulling you to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

you woke up the next day sore. you sat up and stretched, but your mind started to wander and soon you remembered the fun of last night. it filled your heart with happiness and all you wanted to do was see him again. but, in the haze of the night, you never exchanged numbers.

that’s when it occurred to you. jenny stewart’s party. he said it would be tonight at 9 and he’d probably be there. you almost patted yourself on the back for remembering. you looked over to your clock and almost screamed when you saw that it was noon. you slept late. too late. it was time to start preparing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

you had jumped in the shower again, and this time it was an everything shower.

you washed and conditioned your hair thoroughly, did full skincare, exfoliated, and shaved everything. like everything, everything. when you got out, you wiped your hand on the foggy mirror and brushed your teeth to finish the routine.

you ran to your room and started picking out something to wear. you started by grabbing a lacy, black matching set. last night you weren’t prepared, but tonight you would be. you put them on, the black bra pushing your tits up perfectly. the lacy panties left nothing to the imagination, but that was the point. next, you turned to your closet to find a dress. this would probably take a while.

it took a good minute of searching before you found what you were looking for. it was a black dress covered with cherries. how perfect. you thought about how he’d love the subtle callback to last night’s events and giggled. you put everything on and smiled at how you looked. he was gonna love it.

next was makeup. you did a subtle look, swiping a bit of sparkle on your eye and blush on your cheek. the mascara you used made your eyelashes 10x longer and you batted them at yourself in the mirror. you added a bit of sparkly gloss as a finishing touch. you felt like a little girl, giddy to see your crush.

by the time you were finished with everything and put on comfortable shoes, it was time to go. you said bye to your parents, saying you were going to a study group with friends. you tried not to feel upset when they raised their eyebrows at you having friends, and just ran out the door.

the walk there would only be a few minutes because jenny lived in the neighborhood next to yours. you checked your phone and saw that you were gonna be a few minutes late, but that was ok.

as you walked up to her house, you saw that the party was in full swing. there were people in the yard and on her wrap-around porch, already tipsy and talking. you excused yourself by them and made your way up the steps and to the door. the music bumped inside the house, rap being played out of a speaker. you walked into her house and saw you were in the kitchen. jenny’s house was big and very nice, but it was a mess from the party. there was beer bottles everywhere, liquor spilt here and there, and tortilla chips spilling out of bowls. the granite island in the middle of the kitchen had all the booze on top of it, and you realized then that you had never really been to a high school party. not a real one anyway. the only party you were used to going to had punch and a piñata. this was a real party.

you decided to keep your focus on finding jake, looking around the room. you tried to make your way to the living room, accidentally bumping into a very drunk jenny stewart.

“heyyyyyyy girl!” she slurred her words and waved at you.

“hey, jenny”, you tried not to laugh at her state, “have you seen jake?”

“jake kiszka? yeah he’s here.” she almost turned away before she whipped back around and grabbed your arm, “wait. whyyyy?”, she said in a flirty tone. “are you guys togetherrrr?”, she smirked.

you blushed and looked down, “I mean, kinda.”

“shut upppp! go get him, girl!” with that, she pushed you towards the living room.

you laughed and continued on, smiling as you came into the living room. but as soon as you saw him, your smile disappeared.

there he was, dressed in a hot black t-shirt and jeans, leaning against the stairs with a drink in his hand. and next to him was a girl. her dark black hair fell down her back and contrasted with her fair skin. she had on a red bra-like top and the shortest shorts known to man.

they were laughing. talking. why was she making him laugh so much? her hand was on his bicep and his hand on her waist.

you walked over slowly, mouth still slightly open in shock. when he caught a glimpse of you, his eyes went wide and he excused himself from the girl, coming over to you.

“what are you doing here?” his tone was annoyed, impatient.

“um, what? what am I doing here? first of all, you invited me!”

he rolled his eyes, “I didn’t think you’d actually come. it took a army to get you out of your house the first time.”

you scoffed at his rudeness but kept going, “well second of all, what the fuck are you doing?”

“what do you mean, ‘what am I doing’? i’m at a party, having fun.”

you’re eyes got wide and your voice got louder, almost able to be heard by others over the music, “you’re with someone else! what the fuck?”

he put his hand over your mouth and backed you into a corner where nobody would see you, “shut the fuck up. damn, do you ever stop talking? what? you act like we got married last night.”

your eyes glossed over with hurt as you ripped his hand from your mouth and spoke, “what? so nothing that happened last night means anything to you?”

he laughed and rolled his eyes again, “oh my god! it wasn’t that big of a deal. it was one night. yeah, we had fun. but I thought you knew it was just that: fun. you act like we said ‘I love you’ or some shit.” he took a swig of his beer.

you felt stupid. he was making you feel like last night was all in your head. the tears started to fall on their own and you couldn’t stop staring at him in disbelief.

he sighed, “oh, now you’re fucking crying? grow up, (y/n). we’re in high school. what did you think? we were gonna go run away together, get married, have kids, and live in the florida keys?” he scoffed, “you’re pathetic.”

you wiped your tears quickly and made eye contact again, “no, I didn’t think we were gonna get married”, that was a lie that hurt your heart to say, “but fuck, jake! we had sex on a beach and now you’re here flirting with some other girl like I don’t mean anything to you?”

“it’s just sex! fuck, you are so sappy!”

“you took my virginity, jake! what am I supposed to do? pretend like it never happened because you want to fuck some other girl?” the tears started again, and it was getting harder to hold them back.

he threw his hands up like he was innocent, “hey, don’t blame that shit on me! I didn’t know you were a virgin! you didn’t tell me shit.”

“so it was all about sex?! so if you knew I was a virgin, you would’ve never taken me out?” your shook your head, hoping you were wrong.

“no, I wouldn’t have”, he scoffed and said it like it was obvious, then he turned and ran his hand through his hair muttering, “this is such bullshit.”

you couldn’t help the disgust and shock plastered on your face as you took him in. this was a new person. this wasn’t the man you knew last night. maybe it was because he was drunk, or maybe you were just a fool all along, believing his lies. you dropped your head and took a shuddering breath.

“so, you don’t want me?”

he turned back to you and you looked back up. he sighed at your face, covered in tears, like it was annoying to see you like this, like you were a rock at the bottom of his shoe.

“no, I don’t want you. I wanted you last night, and so I had you. don’t make this a thing, ok? normal girls know that when a guy shows up at their house at night asking to ‘hang out’, it means he wants to hook up.” he took a breath, “I guess you just thought I was asking you out so we could lay in a flower field naming the stars and counting the constellations”, he laughed at you, “don’t get me wrong, the sex was good but that’s all it was. now, we’re done.”

that was it. the truth. the truth you never wanted to know. you didn’t know what else to say to him, but you knew you had to say something.

“ok.”

he raised his eyebrows, “ok? you’re done crying?” he sighed, “alright, i’ll see you around.” he walked away, drinking more of his beer, and returned to the box-dye-black-haired girl.

you moved on autopilot, leading yourself out of the room and back into the kitchen with the loud rap playing. passing by the liquor island, you grabbed a big bottle of malibu and continued outside. the party was still going, people making out and talking everywhere. you found the porch stairs and sat down, opening the rum and chugging a good amount. you sat there, drinking and staring out into the moonlight for a long time. you could still feel his hands on you, and you shivered. it was now such an unhappy memory. when the malibu was about half gone, you pulled out your phone. you went to your camera app and looked at the pictures from last night. they started with the one of jake striking a pose right after he learned you wanted to be a photographer. you laughed at the memory and took another drink of the malibu. you swiped and found a bunch of pictures that you had took while you two were laying on the beach, right after you were done having sex. they started with you two smiling, then another of him kissing your cheek, then another of you kissing passionately.

“you can’t tell me that wasn’t real”, you muttered to yourself, looking at the picture and taking a swig of rum.

“boy problems?”

a girl’s voice startled you as she walked up to you from behind.

“yeah.” it was all you could say, the tears already welling up again. you turned off your phone, not being able to look at the happy faces anymore.

she sighed and sat down next to you, “I know that feeling. happened to me a year ago.”

“really?” you looked over. she was so pretty. her brown skin and hair fit well with her marbled glasses frames. she was dressed in a polka dot t-shirt and jeans with a headband taming her curls.

“yeah, some guy I met from a different school. you don’t even want to know what happened.”

you looked at her empathetically and handed her the bottle.

“thanks”, she took a drink and turned to you, smiling. “i’m kate.”

“(y/n). it’s nice to meet another girl who can relate.”

“oh yeah”, she sighed, “I definitely can. so, who’s the guy?”

you hesitated at first, but then thought: what did you have to lose by telling her?

“a guy named jake.”

she gasped, “wait. kiszka?”

you nodded and took another drink.

“that’s the guy who broke my heart a year ago.”

you nearly spit out your gulp of rum. “what? he dated you?”

she rolled her eyes, “yeah, well I wouldn’t call it dating. it was one night. a glorious night on the beach.”

you went still but stayed silent. of course. of course, it was all a prepared night. it was a routine he did to make girls put out and then leave them high and dry.

“I know that’s what happened to you, too. i’ve heard it’s what he does.” she shrugged and took the drink from you, downing some more. she looked over at you and smiled softly, “i’ll help you get over him; I don’t have many friends anyway. we can go get slurpies and sour candy and go watch step brothers at my house.”

you laughed and nodded, laying your head on her shoulder, “that sounds great.”

a silence fell over you, only the faint sound of music and breathing audible.

“it feels like i’m never gonna be alright.” you were such a fool for him. you let him build you up just to tear you down. you hated how much you still wanted him, after everything.

“yes, you will. believe me, it takes time but you get there eventually. until then you just have to deal with it: being wrapped around his finger.”

• • •

THE END.

this one took forever to write (purely because i’m lazy and took so many long breaks lmao) but it’s so rewarding to see it finished! please let me know if you liked this one and what you would like to see next! love you guys so so so much! 💓

(comment under this post to be added to my overall tag list because I just realized I don’t have an overall tag list lol :))

[oneofthemillionarmy]

Masterlist | Once Upon a Time, You were a Princess

Hello old friends. This a rebloggable masterlist for this Disney x BTS crossover scenario series. This series is a retelling of tales as old as time. Each of these series, you're in the place of the infamous Disney princesses, meeting the dreamy prince (or not a prince). These retellings happen in the same world, so you'll be revisiting a few cameo characters in different scenarios through easter eggs. They're also consecutively released in order for the timeline, however unnecessarily needed to read them all. Since it's been at least a year since I announced this scenario series, I'm sure no one even remembers or cares at this point but I'm okay with that. I'm just hoping to see this through. I'll be posting upcoming summaries below for the other unreleased scenarios I have in my workshop, so perhaps it keeps your interest afloat...hopefully not for years to to come. I think these titles/summaries might revise as time goes.

It's been so long, and perhaps majority of the BTS fandom within Tumblr has moved on, particularly the writers to Ao3, but I'm still here. Even when no one reads, I'll still be writing. Tumblr has always been a since of individual space for me through different blogs I have. To anyone who's been following me since 2016 or so, thank you if you are still here. You give my blog the pulse it needs.

Please enjoy, Princesses!

The Thief of Agrabah | Jasmine!you x Djinn!Seokjin - You, Jasmine, is the leader of the Forty Thieves in search of the Djinn in the lamp. When you release the Djinn from the lamp, he makes a deal with you to break the rules for your first two wishes as long as you wish him free in the third one. That may be harder than when you first agreed.

Lips as Red as Blood | Snow.White!you x Childhood.sweetheart.stable.boy!Jungkook - You, Snow White, has become a vampire, and Jungkook is determined to change you back. But is he ready to make the hard decision, if he can't?

The Classic Tale | Sleeping.Beauty!you x Wizard!Yoongi - You, Sleeping Beauty, has been cursed to sleep by day, and be a dragon by night. Yoongi is the amateur wizard, ready to make his wizarding debut to lift your curse.

When the Clock Strikes | Cinderella!you x Prince!Hoseok - You, Cinderella, a time-travelling assassin, is sent back to 1876, where you are tasked to ignite the war that leads to the Jung kingdom's downfall.

Murdered by Song | Ariel!you x Prince!Taehyung - You, Ariel, are not the innocent mermaid, but a viscious siren hell-bent on revenge against the Prince Taehyung.

Truth as It Can Be | Belle!you x Beast!Namjoon - You, Belle, are a modern day supernatural detective, you’re drawn to the infamous prisoner known as the Beast of Incheon. Convinced of his innocence, you dig deeper, risking everything to uncover the truth behind his tragic past and redeem his name.

Agent Magnolia | Mulan!you x Crime.boss!Jimin - You, Mulan, are a CIA agent tasked to go undercover to stop a war before it even starts again st the elusive terrorist group, The Huns. Can your disguise evade the sharp eyes of your new group captain?

[angeart]

And 29!

--from ao3 wrapped [writers edition]

29: Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

this is a very interesting question! and also very difficult, given the amount of things i've written in combination with my bad memory. so of course i went and dug through things, overthinking this, even though, really, i know exactly what to answer. still, let me take the long route. (because i'm an idiot and there's no other way.)

so first i'll ramble about things i like.

starting with the phrase that always makes me weak, and i don't think i use it enough, but characters just dissipating into giggles—that exact wording. like. c'mon. that. whenever i get to use it, i'm so happy. it's such a lack of control and overflow of joy. the best thing ever.

but if we move into specific passages... (i go on a bit of a tangent, so the rest is under the line-) (dancing scene at the end there and a bit of a hmtb spoiler/sneakpeek/preview for you guys)

i looked over the cursed forest au fic (even with death haunting your footsteps, your flowers will bloom again), looking for pretty sentences, and the problem is, that fic is full of pretty sentences. (i honestly don't know how i did that, but it does make me happy.) something about words like the warzone of his good intentions, you know? (i had more. i'm trying to be concise.) (i promise.)

but really, there's one phrase in that fic that i do think about sometimes still. so it needs to be mentioned. here:

It still hurts, to be treated so gently, but unlike everything else, it hurts in a way he thinks he might be able to survive.

------

i also want to bring up a sentence from Elegy that lives in my head rent-free (this is from chapter 3, which i'm aware is unreleased as of now, but shh):

The grief is a guillotine, and he’s bending forward, hair falling away from his neck, baring skin and bracing for impact.

there's just something about that that refuses to let me go.

------

but! i also enjoyed writing happy things. (shocking)

especially this passage from these flowers will wither (like you and me), but they're not dead yet was very fun to write:

-

Grian grins at him, something bright and cheeky. “Do you want to try that again?”

There’s a pause when Scar attempts to recalibrate. (He fails.) (He absolutely fails.) 

He tries to grab something rational in him, tries to tell himself that Grian means dancing. But his traitorous heart supplies a wholly different answer to him. 

Scar pushes himself up and, with fingers sliding along Grian’s jaw, he presses his lips to Grian’s.

(They’re warm. They’re chapped. They’re Grian Grian Grian Grian.)

He feels the vibration of Grian’s laughter against him before he really registers the sound.

“That’s not what I meant,” Grian scolds, but there’s no bite in it; he sounds entirely too pleased and amused, even as he piles a handful of sand on top of Scar’s head in playful revenge.

------

and this honestly now brings me to hmtb. which is where we anchor.

believe it or not, there is a happy scene that i can't stop thinking about (just the sheer power of it, across all the pain and messes and saddness—scar making grian laugh like this.)

------ hmtb chapter 49:

Scar looks at him innocently and presents his question: “What is a romp, Impulse?”

Grian bursts out laughing.

A big, toothy grin spreads across Scar’s face at the sound.

Impulse’s eyes briefly flit to Mumbo and he feels his face get hot. “I— What— That’s not fair!” he whines. “That’s not a truth, that’s a, Scar, I’m not a dictionary!”

At that, Grian laughs harder, bending over. His giggles tip over proper cackling, a bit breathless around the edges, and Scar thinks it’s the most wonderful sound in the whole world.

------ and of course this moment from chapter 47:

Neither of them can help it; their lips treacherously stretch into smiles where they’re pressed against each other, before they both helplessly dissipate into giggles, feeling lightheaded and high. 

“What are we doing,” Grian huffs out through his laughter.

“Kissing,” Scar replies cheerfully and demonstratingly places three kisses along Grian’s jaw.

It’s the best thing in the world.

------

bet you didn't expect me to pull out the happy scenes out of this mess of a fic. ha.

but also! one the things i really like and enjoy is throwing anything to do with explosives, tnt, fire, etc, at scar and grian. like this:

Skin tingling and heart feeling like TNT on the verge of explosion, Scar moves to follow him, blindly, willingly, the way he’d follow him anywhere.

and this:

Watching him, Scar laughs quietly. He thinks of the sound the flint and steel makes, of the little click, of the hiss of TNT as it readies itself to cause damage. It sounds like his heart feels. He thinks of sparks that catch on leaves and grass and bark, a tree going up in flames, the catastrophic heat spreading violently to anything it touches, and he wonders if that is how Grian’s heart feels.  

------

now, since i'm already rambly. there is one bit of hmtb i keep thinking back to constantly. and it's a particular conversation from chapter 21 (the talk in the middle of a crisis). this bit in particular:

 “He wasn’t afraid then. He knew you could kill him, but he wasn’t scared. And you know what, Grian? You didn’t kill him,” he finishes softly. 

“I… didn’t kill him?” Grian repeats, dazed and wobbly. 

“He wasn’t scared, and you didn’t kill him”

(you guys should keep this in mind too. it might get a callout sometime, uhhhhh, around chapter 100 or so at this rate—)

(don't worry about that, ofc.)

and now for the real answer. (wow.)

because here's the thing. you're asking what's my favourite passage. and really, i love all those other things too, but there's one particular bit of writing that hits closer than any other.

the dancing bits.

the heartachy, complicated, painful dancing bits.

and yes, this ties to the whole fic i wrote about them dancing in the desert, but listen. the purely-hmtb bits? those? those. okay?

here we go:

------ hmtb chapter 37: call of the desert

Scar sighs a little and says: “I miss it.”

“Scar,” Grian’s voice is absolutely unsteady.

They haven’t really talked about the desert, not since it was over.

Nobody ever talks about life games, if they can avoid it.

But now Grian sits here and he has to forcefully remind himself that the skin over his knuckles isn’t torn raw and that Scar’s blood isn’t coating his hands and he has to accept that Scar misses the desert and Grian also misses it, in a way, and it’s all so dizzying, it makes him lightheaded.

“We used to dance,” Scar says thoughtfully. “Why don’t we do it anymore?”

“I forgot how,” Grian barely manages to get out. He didn’t forget. In fact, he remembers every step Scar taught him. He remembers them stumbling together into a fall, a small giggling heap on top of the warm sand, limbs tangled. He remembers the moment when Scar grinned wildly at him, joy bright in his eyes, as they completed a couple of steps without a hitch for the first time. He remembers how they laughed and danced, giddy and high on life in a world that promised nothing but death.

He doesn’t want to remember. It hurts his heart.

“I can teach you again,” Scar suggests softly.

The pain in Grian’s heart just gets worse.

Scar reaches for Grian’s hand, then. Even if they’re both sitting on Grian’s bed and they can’t dance like this, he still slides his fingers underneath Grian’s palm and brings it up, in exactly the same way he held it when they danced. With curved lips, he hums a melody.

Grian looks at him, absolutely wretched. His hand twitches in Scar’s grasp, but he doesn’t pull it away. “Scar,” he half-whispers, in a miserable tone. He meant to say stop, but he can’t bring himself to. So he just pleads, using Scar’s name itself, hoping the other man will get it.

Scar studies Grian for a second, before he lowers their hands. He huffs out a small laugh. “It’s okay. We can leave it for some other time.”

Grian purses his lips. He doesn’t say there won’t be another time. He doesn’t say he doesn’t want this. He doesn’t say that something in him desperately wants this, actually, please Scar please.

------

but, you know what. it isn't over.

this answer has been long enough. i know. i know. (i appreciate and love everyone who bothered to read this far <3 ) but. but there's more.

there is more, and it's so closely related, these scenes are entwined and live snugly side-by-side in my heart. but. here's the thing.

this next bit is 1,2k long, and it's from a chapter that, as of now, hasn't been released yet. for the curious, greedy, hungry souls (love you all to bits), here it is:

------ hmtb chapter [unspecified]

Scar blinks and recalibrates under the scrutiny. His eyes dart to the jukebox and he lets a smile spread across his lips, as he reaches out a hand to Grian. “Hey, G, you wanna dance?”

Grian’s eyes widen a fraction, thrown off by the abrupt suggestion. “I’m… not sure,” he manages to say, eyes dropping to Scar’s invitingly outstretched hand, palm-up and ready for him. 

His emotions wrangle in him—a need to be close, to give in, to accept everything Scar’s giving him, pushed violently against the sharp memories of sand and desert, something happy tiding over into blood and pain and misery.

He flexes his fingers, pulls them into a fist and then stretches them out, trying to unknot the tension and release the slight tremble that courses through them. His throat feels dry, all of a sudden.

“It’s okay,” Scar says in the softest tone that never fails to tug at Grian’s heart. “I can lead.”

The music turns mildly cacophonic, askew and sick. It buzzes and pitches and tilts, in a way music isn’t supposed to be able to. And Grian realises that he’s told Scar before that he forgot how to dance. 

Scar taught him all the steps, back in the desert. A lot of hours spent in the stifling air upon sun-warmed evening sand, stumbling and laughing and holding onto each other. Their skin was more tanned then. Their eyes were brighter, their souls wilder. They felt unstoppable.

Grian feels anything but right now.

He doesn’t know if he can take it.

But Scar’s reaching out to him and Grian finds that he cannot turn away from it, his body shackled and chained, unable to resist. And so even if everything in him screams no, he still finds himself reaching back, meeting Scar’s hands with his own trembling fingers, trepidation sinking its teeth into him.

Scar’s smile brightens and oh, maybe it’s not trepidation that Grian feels.

He feels Scar’s fingers take hold of his hand, secure and warm; they pull at him, but not in a destabilising way. It’s the opposite: they tell Grian exactly where to be. Scar’s other arm finds Grian torso and seamlessly slides across to his back, sending shivers down Grian’s spine; his wings stretch out and shudder, before they fall back, feathers lightly brushing over Scar’s skin.

Everything about this is electrifying, and it’s driving Grian haywire. 

He thinks maybe he needs to stop thinking. Maybe he needs to give in to the part of him that wants to let Scar have control of the two of them now; the part of him that wants to trust and believe that he’s safe; the part of him that craves affection with ugly, hungry desperation. 

Scar leans closer and with a rumbling baritone wrapped in velvet, he checks: “Ready?”

Running on nothing but instinct, Grian squeezes at Scar’s hand.

With a low chuckle, Scar lets go of Grian’s back and Grian almost gasps at the abrupt loss—but all Scar does is guide Grian’s free hand to his waist. “Like this,” he murmurs, his voice just a step away from purring, and then his hand slots back against Grian’s spine.

A trembling breath leaves Grian’s lips and he dips his head, leaning forwards, inching closer to Scar. He feels the response in the way Scar’s touch on his back turns firm, accepting the new closeness with reverent neediness. He can’t see Scar’s face, but he can tell Scar’s lips are curved in a smile, cheeks slightly dimpling.

He almost wishes to look, but he can’t, he can’t, it’s too much. 

He takes a deep breath though his nose. The air isn’t dry and hot. The ground doesn’t shift underneath his feet.

It hasn’t shifted underneath his feet in ages, but right now in this very moment, a part of Grian distantly thinks that it should. That if they’re going to dance, it should be atop a mountain, feet sinking into sand.

They’re standing on carpeted floor, and the music disc is one they didn’t have in the desert, the sounds of it wrapping around them in a rhythm completely discordant to the fast beating of Grian’s heart. 

With gentle and deliberate move, Scar directs them to sway. Their feet shift, steady on the solid floor, something learned and simple. Scar leads them in careful, basic steps, the ones he used at the very beginning to teach Grian. Back when even that was too much, and Grian kept stepping on his feet, and Scar kept catching him.

Scar doesn’t need to catch Grian now, because Grian knows these steps. They’re imbued in his muscle memory, something sunken and anchored, a part of his soul that’s reserved for things that feel like home.

Testingly, Scar throws in something more complex. He pulls Grian along, turning them in circles, every step confident and filled with joy. The music is the background rhythm, but they’re both locked somewhere else, in a fragment of a memory—something that used to be; something that Scar believes could be again.

With a curve to his lips, Scar hums and remarks: “You said you don’t remember.”

Grian’s breath hitches and it’s only now that he lifts his head to meet Scar’s gaze. Despite that, his feet do not stumble; he doesn’t need to watch where he steps, he knows it all by heart. His gaze anchors in green eyes and something rises within him so tidally and overwhelmingly that he feels hot wetness blur his vision all of a sudden. “How could I forget?” he manages past the lump in his throat.

Scar gently lets go of Grian’s hand and instead reaches to touch Grian’s jaw, brushing his thumb soothingly over Grian’s cheek as he takes in the raw, ravaging emotion in Grian’s eyes. 

Grian moves his suddenly free arm around Scar, fingers finding purchase in the fabric of Scar’s shirt, digging into it until he has a firm grip. His lungs spasm in his chest, his heart stutters, his wings droop then lift and spread. A loose feather drops to the floor and Scar sidesteps it expertly, as if it was somehow too precious to damage. 

“You remember,” Scar murmurs, an odd inflection to his voice. 

Grian’s skin buzzes where Scar touches it; a tingling, warm sensation spreads from Scar’s fingertips and robs Grian of breath. “Of course,” he murmurs, quiet, destabilised. 

Scar’s eyes crinkle in joy, lips spreading into a bright, toothy smile that ends in dimpled skin as he looks at Grian. He makes no attempt to call out Grian’s earlier lie; he seems content in knowing that this is the truth, warm and alive underneath his fingers, guided by his steps. “Oh, I wouldn’t mind teaching you again, but this makes me so happy!” he admits openly, fractionally heightening their tempo as he leads them in spinning circles, everything in him attuned to the music even as it becomes nothing more than a background noise.

Grian isn’t ready for those words. Nor for the way Scar looks at him.

He feels like he’s drowning, and Scar’s both his sea and his oxygen.

Scar starts humming in tune, the happy expression lingering on his face, and it’s only then that the discordant rhythm of the song disentangles and starts making sense to Grian. It’s only the reverb of Scar’s voice that puts coherency into Grian’s existence; into their steps across the carpet that doesn’t give underneath their weight; into the way the room sways around them, full of warm shadows and flickering flames and muted colours not quite matching sand.

[bvannn]

Weekly Update November 15, 2024

I’m in a real bad spot again, everything I’ve been trying keeps going wrong, but i did get some art stuff done.

I tried writing some shorter songs on a whim with some 16 bit soundfonts and i think they came out pretty well. Add 3 more to the ‘songs i finished but can’t release yet’ pile. Also made some midis for two more vocal parts, one for a cover (FF), one for an original (LF), both of which have finished instrumentals. Started tuning FF, am going to try some of the new strategies i tested a few weeks ago. Another vocal original, BATB, that I’ve been on and off working on is probably done? I think? I finished mixing the vocal part, another one for the pile. Also fixed a random glitch that would sometimes happen where an instrument would randomly play a phantom note that didn’t exist in the midi part at the very start of a song, which was causing issue with three songs. Also re-edited Blow Off Steam, since the mixing was fucking awful idk what was wrong with me to think that would be passable. I’ll release it on YouTube once I have motivation to open my computer. I really need to just sit down and draw some cover art but every time i try everything in my life keeps going wrong I’m cursed i swear. It’s fine it’ll get done eventually, i started on one of them this week and so far it looks good. I thumbnailed some more that also look fine. I just need life to cut me a break so i can draw. I just want a break. One break.

I tried working on the comic this week too, got about half of page 12 inked. The comic looks great and is fun to read through and i love how it’s coming out but again every time I try to work on it bad things happen to me that get in the way. I want to give a deadline and say ‘oh, it’ll be done on (x date)’ but I can’t. I don’t know what’s going to happen. Maybe today I’ll go look at tapas and see how things are over there, since I can’t really work on anything. I haven’t really thought about how I’d go about releasing the damn thing once it is finished other than ‘probably not webtoon, I’ve never heard anyone say anything positive about webtoon’.

I made storyboards/thumbnails for another animation project, smaller one for one of the smaller unreleased songs I’m sitting on. I looked into after effects again and it should be able to do some of the effects I thought I was going to need to learn blender for, which is great because I don’t want to mess with blender yet. There’s a certain character who I’ve only really drawn a couple times because I wanted her to have a really unique visual style, so once I have myself together I’d like to try drawing her and rendering her with the new tricks I learned in after effects, but again things need to get better first, and that’s unlikely.

Last bit of hope for progress next week would be the epithet erased TTRPG. I finished off the first tileset I had done and actually sat down to turn it into some maps, and it works really well. Ended up watching through the original anime campaign a bit further too, which inspired me to get some statblocks done and some character minis sketched. Also completely rewrote stage 6 for the second time but I think this time it’ll stick. A couple more NPC ideas have been floating around for that and I might post a mini once I have more. Again I’m hesitant to post anything visual for that, since my plan is currently to turn the campaign into a prewritten module for other people to run, release the module for free so everyone can play, and then release the optional maps and minis as a paid package, so I can make a bit from my work but also make the system more accessible to people for free. The fifth anniversary streams are this weekend, including one that is set to cover the updated system book, hopefully that should give me the motivation to get going, and then if that goes well that should give me motivation for my other projects. Everything I’m doing is intertwined with each other and with my mood, so if nothing else bad happens I should be getting better, but again there’s still a couple things that can go wrong and they certainly will because I’m not allowed to have anything.

Sorry again for how gloomy this post has been, everything seems to be going wrong but I’m going to keep trying. I might be slow again for a while but that’s fine, that’s why I loaded up my queue with old art. Thank you everyone for sticking through it, and I’m glad you guys have been enjoying the old art. I shuffled the queue so some of it isn’t as old as others, but even so a good number of you are seeing pieces for the first time. I really hope I’ll have something big to show soon!

[ailelie]

Rec: How to Disappear Completely

I am finally listening to How to Disappear Completely.

Y'all. I am in love.

Go. Listen.

In, oh, 2007 or 2008, I listened to How to Disappear Completely on PodioBooks (amazing website, sadly terrible now) and adored it. Theo, one of the leads, was living in a foreign country and trying to figure out what her life is supposed to be. Meanwhile, I was also living in a foreign country and utterly at a loss. I didn't even feel homesick then. Instead, home felt like a cursed prophecy I couldn't avoid. I couldn't make myself call home for fear I would get sucked into mundane low expectations.

The author, Myke Bartlett, was recording and releasing chapters as he wrote them. I had a few concerns with later storyline about people with no history, but otherwise, it was one of my favorite stories.

And it has remained so, but a podcast book no longer online is hard to share with people. Bartlett later released a set of short stories (that I adore), but these were sequels to an unreleased revised version of the original novel. Also hard to explain to people.

Then, I learn he has rewritten HtDC and, more than that, he is releasing it as a podcast again.

Initially, as excited as I was, I didn't listen. Spotify didn't have the first episodes and I let that be my excuse, but really I feared the possibility that the story wouldn't live up to memory.

But. I finally started listening. And I am in love.

HtDC is a time travel story. The time travel is not really explained until chapter 8 and so you'll spend those first seven with folded over events, people meeting and it is the second time for one and the first time for the other. People appearing where they can't be. Future events folding back and causing past events. It is a tangle. I love it, but I know not all do.

Accept that, though, and you'll get a fantastic story. Theo Jones is a prickly, stubborn woman who is certain her life was supposed to be better than this. When her boyfriend disappears, she is the only one to remember him. Refusing to just let the matter be, she decides to find him, more out of guilt than love. Her quest leads her to Kilbey Salmon and one of my favorite characters of all time, Nero Dusk.

Nero is the best. If you listen to this podcast for one reason at all, listen for Nero. He's a grump with a gigantic heart. He's Kilbey's muscle, minder, and best friend. Kilbey thinks he has the brain cells in their relationship, but really, he can only conjure his own during chaos. The rest Nero loans out as needed.

Kilbey is the face and the mouth of their operation. He's all calculated charm pasted over a rather big secret and a deeper well of care than he'd like to admit exists. I think Kilbey would love to not care about other people, but he can't not. So he just pretends really hard that he doesn't instead.

14 episodes are out. I'm on 8. I am so so happy this story has been revised and is being released again. I am so incredibly thrilled that the writing not only holds up, but is improved, and that the characters are still recognizable and interesting. I cannot believe I can finally share this with people again.

Go listen to How to Disappear Completely. You won't regret it.

[mediaevalmusereads]

Silver Nitrate. By Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Del Rey, 2023.

Rating: 4/5 stars

Genre: horror/supernatural

Series: N/A

Summary: Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood.

Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed.

Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend.

As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: smoking, references to drug use and pain killer addiction, homophobia, reference to drug overdose/suicide attempt, Nazis, racism, disturbing images, violence

OVERVIEW: I got this book from the library after reading several Silvia Moreno-Garcia books that I've liked. Usually, books set after the 1920s aren't my jam, but I wanted to see what the author can do. Luckily, I had fun with this one; the focus on film was a creative way to explore horror and the occult, and the two protagonists were well-developed and fun to watch. While I didn't think this book was perfect, it certainly held my attention, so for that reason, it gets 4 stars.

WRITING: Moreno-Garcia's prose is very easy to read; it flows well, it balances showing and telling, and it's descriptive and eerie without feeling overburdened. I don't think I have much to say that I haven't said before.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows Monserrat, a sound editor, and Tristán, a down-on-his-luck actor, as they form a friendship with a former horror flick director, Abel. Abel convinces them that his final film, which is incomplete, needs to be finished in order to lift a curse; at first, Monserrat and Tristán help him to humor an aging film icon, but soon they discover that the unreleased film was a conduit for nefarious magic. As Monserrat and Tristán learn more about the film's production, they uncover a world of cults and occult knowledge that threatens to reshape the present.

I loved the weirdness of this plot. I loved the role that film and horror movies played in shaping the way the magic worked and the way the characters interacted with the world. I loved the mixture of runes, ritual, and willpower that systematized magic while also making it personal - not something secret and guarded by elites, but something that can be enacted by those that have the desire to act. I also love the nod to history; Moreno-Garcia is clearly interested in the occultism of the 1930s and how Nazi enthusiasm dovetailed with racism, and I liked how this focus was brought to 1990s Mexico to show how the fanaticism of the past can have effects years on.

But as much as I liked this plot, I do think there are moments where uncovering the past led to extended paragraphs of backstory and explanatory dialogue. While the history is important, a lot of it is conveyed by characters just telling the characters a long story or something akin to a mini-lecture. This isn't my favorite way of communicating information, but I understand why it's needed.

CHARACTERS: This book has a number of characters, so I'll speak of a few individuals before looking at supporting or side characters generally.

Montserrat, the sound editor, is likable in part because she is so direct and competent. I very much enjoyed watching her become focused on getting to the bottom of things, and her take-no-shit attitude was pleasing and refreshing. Her inability to cook and her endless supply of ratty t-shirts was also quite endearing.

Tristán, the actor, is a great foil for Montserrat. He's charming where she is blunt, he's cowardly where she is brave, and he's flippant where she is determined. Heck, he even cooks and dresses well, so he felt like Montserrat's opposite in every way. This made the two an interesting duo, and their bickering was actually kind of interesting because it forced them to confront their respective weaknesses.

Supporting characters are fine and they serve their function. Abel was primarily a source of knowledge and was responsible for getting the whole plot moving, and I kind of liked that he started out as this lonely old man who just wanted company to listen to his stories.

Ewers, the occultist and primary antagonist, was actually kind of well-done. I usually don't enjoy antagonists that spend most of their time off-page, but I think Moreno-Garcia was smart in that she made him something of a ghost: a being who is there but not. Ewers gradually shows up by starting as this undefined presence, but gets more and more corporeal as more magic is used. I found this effective because it made the story feel like a gradual uncovering, like at first, we're not sure if magic is real but then, by the end, we're absolutely convinced.

TL;DR: Silver Nitrate is an eerie supernatural thriller that unites movies with magic in a quite literal way. The chemistry between the protagonists and the focus on occultism make this book especially memorable.

[donfadrique]

I don't have time to answer questionnaires like @aragarna did recently (and I'm not as popular as she is, besides, I haven't found yet someone to edit my English translation yet, so you need to use Google Translate to read my stories), but I want to say a few words about my 'literary kitchen'. And, more specifically, about the WDZ fanfiction.

1) If I could, I'd make fanvids. Many, many fanvids (I do love pics/visual, as you remember). In particular, the idea of crack (humorous) vid on Elvis' song 'The Devil In Disguise' doesn't let me go, the finale of which would be this moment xD

2) I rarely write PWP (I mean 'porn without plot', and 'porn with plot' I write also rarely), but most of my stories started with bed scenes xD But the 1st thing I started writing on WDZ was 'The Curse of Monterrey', and for the 1st time in my life I'm writing in the UST (Unreleased Sexual Tension) genre. To be honest, I was counting on a female audience that loves this genre, which means that at least someone will read me x) Later, after watching the series, I was convinced that UST is the maximum in this story. (If you start the story from the scene with sex, it will turn out like in my 'El Día de los Enamorados' - Diego or both of them won't get along in character, and this is either a drama or a maxi-fanfic about the grinding of the characters and how they ran all over New Spain one after another with swords xD)

3) Heterosexual pairs? Firstly, a pairing of Diego + Monastario led me to the fandom (I didn’t even know what they both looked like then, but the antagonist with a guitar under Diego’s balcony attracted my attention, 'cos I'm curious, ironic and ex-guitarist xD) Secondly, perhaps my perception of characters is very much influenced by the perception of actors, and if Monastario (Lomond) gives me the impression that he prefers women (but, it is possible that he 'prefers variety') and is capable of Shakespearean feelings, so I'm writing het about the Captain and it's possible that I'll write more of it in future, then Diego (Williams) gives the impression that he is 'oh, family man, two children' ©'Queer As Folk', that is, with him 'it's clear that the matter is dark'. The moral boy, but temperamental one. I can imagine him in a het pair, but I feel uncomfortable for some reason. So it's best not to write het plot lines with him at all, although I'll have to do that in 'The Curse...' in future chapters.

I wonder if my perception of the characters will change over time.

P. S. The song =)

https://youtu.be/emjLXdsj6xA

[morosis-haze]

hii babes i was wondering if u could do a tr boys x( beyonce )reader maybe bonten?like how their s/o is famous and they are world criminals .have a good day <3

𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐦𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐰/ 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐬/𝐨

A/n: Gn!reader. Mocchi isn’t in this b/c I was struggling to try writing for him, when I feel like I have his character down maybe I’ll do his version. I’m sorry this request is late, but I hope you enjoy.

Warning: curse words, threats, words implying to violence

𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐣𝐢𝐫𝐨 𝐌𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐲 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐨—

- there’s a bunch a people who know y’all are dating just not the whole public

- mikey knows how to keep peoples mouth shut

- let someone see y’all together and he is on them

- doesn’t go anywhere with a lot people though to begin with

- being in a relationship with Mikey would be complicated at times he wouldn’t always communicate and would push you away

- with you being busy yourself caused more problems

- you have to have patience to make sure you get Mikey to sit down with you every once in a while and actually spend time together

- Mikey does love your private moments

- at times he’ll make up a random game

“How about I say something and you sing it to me back”

“mikey ..”

“What it will be like an exercise for you,right?”

𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐳𝐮 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐲𝐨—

“ So, can I listen to the album?”

“Sanzu it’s not done yet”

“Just one song please”

- you played 2 seconds of a song and didn’t let him hear more than that

He just paused and stared at you in disbelief “… that was not the full thing”

“Yeah I never agreed to let you hear it”

-Dramatically flailing out his arms and whining “I didn’t even get to hear your voice”

- Negative comments are something you’re already used to, but let anyone say even the slightest negative shit about you near sanzu and we might have to pray for that person’s life

- “people who listen to y/n are brainwashed” “ I don’t understand people who listen to y/n they don’t even sound good”

- sanzu just has to go ‘talk’ to this person cause ain’t no way they said such bullshit with confidence

- y’all relationship did get to the public quickly, but that ain’t really surprising

- this of course caused discourse, and now a bunch of articles are on you

- “y/n seen out with bonten member”

- the album you dropped afterwards still hit #1 sooooo you do you

- everything that was being said was getting to sanzu though

-he didn’t want to cause you any problems

- you reassure him he isn’t causing major problems and your relationship will not end

𝐊𝐨𝐤𝐨𝐧𝐨𝐢 𝐇𝐚𝐣𝐢𝐦𝐞—

- koko had showed up to a photo shoot of yours one time and let me tell the look on these peoples faces

- they’re all having a wtf moment seeing you send a little wave his way

- they knew better than to question the relationship when seeing the side eye koko was sending

- just making sure nothing’s going wrong

- whenever he does want to go out with you it’s always in a secluded area where everyone knows him, and knows not to open their mouth about how he’s with you

- he’s quite helpful when it comes to your career

- you want his opinion on what the album cover should be he’s right there giving reason why the first cover matches the energy of the album better

- right there when you have writers block, letting you know there’s no need to rush

-he’s your assistant but he’s not

𝐊𝐚𝐤𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐨 𝐇𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐨—

- your biggest fan

- very careful with his relationship with you

- he didn’t want it to get public that you’re dating a bonten member as he knows how it could effect you

- now kakucho is a very supportive boyfriend

- he’ll listen to your songs on repeat, and then praise you for your work every single time

“ you did amazing on this!”

- though at times he forgets not to play the unreleased songs

- you showed up to his place and heard your song blaring through the walls

- like sir you can’t do that

- kakucho doesn’t want to cause any problems, but give the word that someone’s been messing with you and he could go handle it then he’ll do just that

- he won’t involve himself in a situation till it’s necessary

- kakucho just minds his business except when it comes to your music

𝐓𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐨𝐦𝐢 𝐀𝐤𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢—

- was here since day motherfuckin one in your career

- Takeomi is like your bodyguard at times

- “ y/n when do you plan on giving us another album? It’s been such a long time since you dropped-” this person kept on pressing you while being all up in your face

- that’s where takeomi comes in cause ain’t no one gonna make his s/o feel uncomfortable

- odd as it is to the media y’all are just coincidentally in the same area there ain’t a photo or video to prove you and Takeomi actually know each other

- have people all on the internet concerned for you, some think you’re in bonten, just a list theories

- Takeomi just knows how to make sure you guys aren’t caught looking like you’re together

- he knows y’all are both busy people so he tries his best to make sure there won’t be any interruptions when you’re both together

𝐑𝐚𝐧 𝐇𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐢—

-shows up to your studio every time you’re there

-he knows he’s intimidating people there

-you got writers block and he’ll help in some way

“Let me do a verse” “mmm actually i just thought of what I wanna say. How about next album,ran?”

- when your relationship did get public it was a mix of hate and amusement from people

- he didn’t give a fuck

- went out for dinner right after like it was nothing

- “so, are you paying?”

- the nerve of him to ask like he didn’t order damn near everything off the menu

- thing is with ran he’s doesn’t care being in public with you cause he wishes someone would try you and him

𝐑𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐮 𝐇𝐚𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐢—

- another who’s wants to keep the relationship private

- rindou will just be sitting in your studio as you record songs

- only other people in there being your closest friends that work with you and they had no problems with rindou or either they decided to be quiet then to start one

- rindou does get jealous of the people that get to be around you

- seeing another so close to his s/o on the media and he can’t even be there due to the issues it would cause

- part of him wishes to let everyone know you’re dating him, but the problems it could cause you isn’t worth it to him

-bonus: rindou def was a fan when he met you

Taglist :: @milliumizoomi @plutosexc @sscarchiyo @iridesent-folly join taglist here

[raichett]

A Special Concert

This flash fic is inspired by a comic strip done by @0xeyedaisy, which can be found here. Thanks for ripping so many people’s hearts out.

The song Ariana sings is Dark Dance by Burn The Ballroom, which is an absolute banger and can be found here. This is my agenda for getting more people aware of this incredibly underrated band.

This flash fic can also be found on AO3 here.

Content warnings: canonical character death, canonical suicide, it’s the Third Life finale, you know what that means. 

---

A SPECIAL CONCERT

Scar’s still alive when Ariana stumbles to his side, falling to her knees in the sand. It’s dry under one knee and wet under the other, the sand turning red as Scar leaks blood in a steady flow, spreading around him. Her trembling hands hurt. She thinks one of her knuckles might be dislocated. Scar clumsily takes one of her hands and she lets him, gripping tight with her bloodied fingers. Ariana’s heart doesn’t feel like a heart where it beats inside her chest; it feels like an empty space rattling about inside the cage of her ribs. Broken, she thinks, distantly. Once, she would have turned that thought and image into a lyric.

She wants to move, wants to close her eyes, block out the sight of Scar – Scar – dying in front of her of the wounds her hands gave him. She wants to be a coward for once in her life as the reddish haze lifts from her mind. It’s a bit like waking up from a nightmare into another nightmare, this one worse, this one real.

She swallows and stays at his side instead, keeping her eyes on his, red on red as red pools around them. It’s the least she owes him. The spectators are still chanting, but quieter, now, their murmurings wordless like how the voices of the crowds from her shows became wordless in the roar of pure overlapping noise. She misses those days, back when her greatest worries were about stage equipment and travel logistics on tours, not – not death and destruction and the curse that has claimed all of them and won.

“Hey,” Scar says, softly. His breathing isn’t right and it’s making his words hard. Ariana can see where her fists broke his ribs by the dents and lumps on his chest. She forces herself not to look away. “Before I completely pass out and die…” It’s so matter of fact, is the thing. A scream burns in Ariana’s throat, unreleased, as she leans in a little to listen to Scar’s last request. “Could you sing me a song?” Oh. “I never… got a chance” – he pauses to cough, turning his head to splatter more blood on the sand – “to hear you… sing…”

Ariana’s grief writes itself across her face. “All right,” she says, forcing a smile as she holds back tears. Her sharp teeth have never made her look traditionally pretty, and most of her old promotional posters had her with a close-lipped smile, but Scar has never flinched at them. It was the first thing she decided she liked about him, back then, when she grinned unthinkingly and he did nothing more than blink and grin back. “A special concert just for you.”

She starts to sing, one of her older songs, the ones she wrote without her agent reviewing them and nitpicking the lyrics. More alternative rock than the pop rock of her most famous hits, but it comes from the heart, and she can give nothing less to Scar to take with him to whatever comes next.

Scar finally closes his eyes as she gets to the end of the second verse; “I see your face in the firelight, I know that it’s fine,” – she stares right at his face, grey and going greyer – “‘cause in the dark of the dance here, you’re already mine…”

Overhead, the late afternoon sun is blazing down on her back, her shoulders and arms and neck burning even more. She’s already got sunburn, skin peeling at the edges from the lack of care being Red brings, the way it’s everything and nothing, neglect and passion in a double-edged blade.

The chorus escapes her throat too easily, old muscle memory keeping her singing as Scar starts to go still. “Sing with me in the dead of night, a break down beat keeps my heart in time.” She stops leaning over him, slumping her weight back on her aching legs, even as her eyes remain glued to his face, his almost-peaceful face. “I love about what I love about you, angel…”

She ends the chorus with another repetition of its two lines and then, her voice wobbling, finishes the rest of the song. By the time it’s done, Scar’s hand has started to cool in hers. Her fingers trembling, she lets it go, carefully placing it to lie limp on the sand.

And that’s the end of the show, goodnight everyone! she imagines herself saying, as she’s said so many times before, holding out her microphone to her screaming crowd late into the night, body flushed and aching with the high of the performance, trembling with adrenaline and ready to crash backstage from tiredness. Goodnight, goodnight! And have a safe trip home!

She rises to her feet. In a way, tired and shaking and jittery as she is, the murmurings of the spectators surrounding her – one voice louder now, she thinks deliriously – it’s almost familiar. It’s almost like the end of a show.

She raises her head mechanically from Scar’s body to the edge of the cliff, just beyond the cacti ring. She knows just what the final song should be. As she takes her first steps towards the cliff, the spectators get louder, seemingly in agreement with her. Her fingers twitch, her hand curling around thin air as though she were fiddling with her microphone, a nervous habit she developed when she first stepped foot on the stage.

“Goodnight, everyone,” she whispers when she’s on the ledge, staring at the setting sun as its rays bleed gold and orange across the ground. The spectators chant. The imaginary crowd roars applause in her ears. “… Goodnight.”

[haehaeming]

100 random facts about SJ members that may or may not help you with your FF

Or if you’re just... bored

1. Eunhyuk doesn’t like finger prints on screens, glasses, etc... It’s a little thing I find cute

2. Kyuhyun was a fan of SJ’s music before debuting with them

3. Leeteuk knows what ‘daddy’ means in a sexual context

4. Leeteuk also understands the concept of a sugar parent, but it was not a positive experience for him. It’s possible other members also understand this concept.

5. Kyuhyun likes men and women

6. Yesung writes his own music

7. Leeteuk has many unreleased songs

8. Eunhyuk has difficulty with his emotions in a general sense, so he’s thankful SJ understand him

9. When Kyuhyun was a teenager, he has to rebel against his fathers wishes to debut as a singer.

10. Kyuhyun dated many girls as a teenager, but only kissed one

11. Sungmin and Kyuhyun have the highest amount of testosterone among SJ members. This was public information a long time ago, though, and alcohol consumption has probably lowered the number a little over time.

12. Sungmin and Kyuhyun share a love of wine

13. Ryeowook is an affectionate drunk

14. Leeteuk is a Leo Venus which means he’s very annoying (read: passionate) in his relationships (This fact was corrected by @fanbynature , it originally said Heechul was a Leo Venus too but he’s actually a Leo Virgo, bonus fact!!)

15. Donghae thinks Eunhyuks lips look best in the morning.

16. Eunhyuk understands the concept of drag.

17. Yesung is very talkative but only when you’re close to him

18. Yesung would kiss SJ good morning back in the dorm days

19. Kyuhyun shows love through acts of service

20. Yesung shows love through quality time

21. Leeteuk is a huge flirt, any fan who met him more personally will tell you

22. As far as we know, Yesung used to collect all sorts of jewellery.

23. Ryeowook and Leeteuk are into cute things (phone cases with cute characters, charms, etc)

24. It’s said Yesung and Sungmin will sleep the least amount of time, but Ryeowook will sleep the most

25. Sungmin and Leeteuk share a moon phase (Waning Gibbous)

26. Back in the dorm, Donghae would also wake his members with affection, but no kisses.

27. Donghae lost his first love because he was too clingy.

28. Kyuhyun and Leeteuk were consider ‘mom’s friend’s kids’ in their school days because they excelled in everything they did. Like the scold ‘why can’t you be more like my friends kid’

29. Kyuhyun has a HUGE fanboy past. Now he can barely use the Internet without making it clear he’s old.

30. Shindong doesn’t like to be clothed at night or in the summer. He takes off his clothes unconsciously

31. Donghae was entrusted to Leeteuk by Donghae’s father

32. Donghae keeps his habits from the dorm days around Leeteuk even now. When he and Leeteuk would share a room, Donghae would cuddle Leeteuk. Even now, when they share a room to sleep, Donghae sings to Leeteuk to try and lull him to sleep.

33. Kyuhyuns relationship with Donghae has been a little bit confusing for him, but recently he said Donghae is like SJs son

34. Yesung’s favourite song is ‘I’ll Make Love To You’

35. Sungmin is the only introvert in SJ

36. Kyuhyun, Leeteuk and Sungmin are open to book recommendations at all times

37. Because of Koreas age system, Yesung and Sungmin are basically the same age.

38. Sungmin technically ages 2 times on his birthday.

39. Teenage Leeteuk celebrated little milestones in relationships like ‘100 days anniversary’

40. Leeteuk would rather be called his stage name than his given name.

41. DBSJ* worked with a ghost in the recording studio, according to Sungmin

42. Donghae and Eunhyuk share a love of strawberries

43. Kyuhyun does not like to be called with pet names

44. Yesung has always shown interest in Canada for whatever reason

45. Ryeowook played the triangle in his school band. Literally

46. Yesung, Donghae and Leeteuk don’t drink.

47. Leeteuk and Kyuhyun love the colour white

48. Sometimes, Kyuhyun unwinds by solving math problems

49. Kyuhyun cited himself in his college thesis on K-pop’s popularity.

50. Leeteuk is taller than Sungmin. It’s more drastic than you think

51. Donghae and Sungmin have both been deemed as ‘naturally cute’, but oddly enough, Sungmin has said he doesn’t act cute anymore. Donghae hasn’t changed in terms of cuteness once

52. Donghae is very fond of dogs. Kyuhyun and Ryeowook are not

53. Sungmin and Eunhyuk were the closest friends predebut. They would take the bus to SM together and make sure nobody else sat next to them. There’s a picture somewhere online of a predebut Sungmin resting his head on Eunhyuk during one of those bus rides

54. Leeteuk didn’t have many friends when he was younger. Leeteuk still thinks he doesn’t have many friends.

55. Donghae and Sungmin share forgetfulness.

56. Leeteuk and Heechul became friends easily because they’re the same age and look out for each other. Also because if Leeteuk was busy or resting, Heechul would be the oldest and have authority over the young SJ for him.

57. Leeteuk and Kyuhyun taught themselves how to cook. Ryeowook and Sungmin were good at it from the beginning

58. Leeteuk wanted to become an idol because of 90s kpop groups looking super cool. He wanted some of that for himself and now I think he’s one of the coolest people ever

59. Leeteuk smokes

60. Sungmin used to sleep in a pink nightgown. Even now, he doesn’t let the fact go, but he says it’s embarrassing

61. Predebut Eunhyuk stole a Shinhwa CD from SM to impress a girl

62. Leeteuks waist size is 26 inches. The ideal size for women in the west

63. Leeteuk entered to win special edition Nike shoes 100 times total. He won

64. When a younger Sungmin was frustrated, he would vent online. Similar to how Leeteuk would when he was younger

65. Sungmin recently said men ask him for his number when he goes out

66. As far as we know, Yesung used to worry about whether or not he would live to grow old :(

67. Donghae has always had a love of poetry

68. Kyuhyun’s originally near-sighted

69. Both Yesung and Leeteuk struggle to define their relationships with others

70. Yesung doesn’t smile a lot when cameras aren’t on him

71. Eunhyuk doesn’t like seafood. Donghae does.

72. Donghae doesn’t like sweets. Eunhyuk does

73. Sungmin was the first member to open his YT channel back in 2018.

74. Ryeowook is said to be a heavy drinker

75. Leeteuk finds peace in the rain

76. Kyuhyun is said to have one of the biggest hearts in SJ, alongside Leeteuk

77. Eunhyuk first appeared publicly in 1992 on a TV show by complete accident. It made him happy

78. In order to sleep in a new location, Donghae sleeps best if there’s something near him that reminds him of home. This is an old fact holds up today, Donghae often sleeps close to his members

79. Predebut, Eunhyuk and Junsu purposefully tried to make Donghae cry

80. Every roommate Donghae has had, he has had multiple complaints about all of them

81. Yesung bought a turtle a long time ago because he felt bored without a pet. Even after buying the turtle, he was still bored

82. Eunhyuk is constantly getting ‘friend zoned’ by Donghae. It’s mostly Donghae who calls them as friends, Eunhyuk got a million other words

83. Sungmin studies English and music every day.

84. Leeteuk loves to learn and is always studying something new as well

85. In high school, Leeteuk studied German

86. ‘Don’t give up’ was Sungmin’s motto in elementary school

87. Leeteuk and Sungmin are big Na Hoon Ah fans

88. When Donghae was in elementary school, he was taller than his classmates and even had a nickname relating to how tall he was

89. Sungmin is still mistaken for his 20s

90. Sungmin loves to eat, he talks about food a lot, but still diets strictly as a couple with his Saeun~

91. Eunhyuk is clumsy

92. Leeteuk is very different off camera, but he’s always aware of hidden cameras, so it’s impossible to catch him ‘normally’.

93. Leeteuk and Yesung curse like sailors

94. Kyuhyun and Shindong share great memorization skills

95. Donghae doesn’t like to eat alone

96. Yesung is the only Virgo in SJ. Kyuhyun is the only Aquarius.

97. Leeteuk finds some men to be cute. Particularly men with beards (in terms of dating)

98. Sungmin wants to record music in English for his international fans

99. Sungmin and Leeteuk both have a fan they consider a friend

100. Eunhyuk loves to be in Japan

[imetyouonljpodcast]

I’m V. Arrow (she/her), and I’ve been writing fanfiction my whole life, really, but I’ve been posting it online since 1998 (and it was the main thing that got me grounded between the ages of 12 and 18).

Thanks to fandom, I have also published The Panem Companion, a guidebook to The Hunger Games; an essay in Fic! Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World about RPF, looking mainly at One Direction; and an essay with infographics in Divergent Thinking, an anthology about the Divergent series. I’ve also gotten to speak at San Diego Comic-Con on a panel about fanfiction!

I like woman-focused narratives and analytical lenses, weird and thoughtful linguistic choices, rich worldbuilding, when the good guys (and especially gals) win, women written as full people with dignity and respect, men who adore the women in their lives, and healthy relationships after sad characters get the therapy they need.

I love fics that take a tiny corner of a huge canon universe and dive deep to flesh out a place or a character that canon doesn't give its due.

Some people think I’m angry all the time, but I’m actually a very bubblegum happy girl -- I’m just a Jewish feminist who loves yelling and sees spirited debate as a bonding activity (and I have high standards and no energy for excusing bad behavior just because a character's hot).

In the time that Maggie and I have known each other, I have written fanfic for the following pairings:

Rob Pattinson/Kristen Stewart (Twilight RPF)

Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark, Cinna/Finnick Odair, Finnick Odair/Annie Cresta, various other pairings (The Hunger Games)

Anna Oliphant/Étienne St. Clair, Lola Nolan/Cricket Bell (Anna and the French Kiss series)

Percy Jackson/Nico DiAngelo, Percy Jackson/Nico DiAngelo/Rachel Elizabeth Dare/Annabeth Chase, various other pairings (Percy Jackson & the Olympians)

Mia Thermopolis/Michael Moscovitz (The Princess Diaries book series)

Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson, Louis Tomlinson/Nick Grimshaw (One Direction)

Harry Styles/George Shelley, Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson/George Shelley, George Shelley/Ella Henderson (Union J + One Direction)

Barclay Beales/Tom Mann (Stereo Kicks)

Poe Dameron/Rey Skywalker, Poe Dameron/Finn/Rey Skywalker, Poe Dameron/Suralinda Javos, Poe Dameron/Ben Solo, Poe Dameron/Karé Kun, Poe Dameron/Muran, Poe Dameron/Leia Organa, Poe Dameron/Greer Sonnel, Cassian Andor/Shara Bey/Kes Dameron, Sabé/Padmé Amidala, Breha Organa/Bail Organa, various other pairings (Star Wars universe)

Nicky/Joe [Nicolò di Genova/Yusuf al-Kaysani], Andy/Quýnh [Andromache the Scythian/Quýnh] (The Old Guard)

And LOTS of drabbles for various YA and MG book pairings and other pairings of UK X-Factor contestants. And maybe some GBBO contestant drabbles? I honestly can’t remember!

Pairings I love desperately but have not written include:

Jack Dawson/Rose DeWitt Bukater (Titanic)

Emily Fitch/Naomi Campbell (Skins)

Everyone in Ocean’s Eight/Everyone Else in Ocean’s Eight

Eleanor Shellstrop/Chidi Anagonye, Jason Mendoza/Janet (The Good Place)

Steve/Bucky (Captain America)

Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau (Captain Marvel)

Cassel Sharpe/Lila Zacharov (The Curse Workers)

My Top Ten Albums of All Time

1989, Taylor Swift

Heroes & Thieves, Vanessa Carlton

Hotel Paper, Michelle Branch

Salute, Little Mix

Up All Night, One Direction

Replay, Play

A Little Bit Longer, The Jonas Brothers

Folie a Deux, Fall Out Boy

Chapter One, Ella Henderson

That Day, Greg Raposo (and more than that, all of his unreleased/limited release tracks)

Right Where You Want Me, Jesse McCartney

I’m currently @aimmyarrowshigh​​ on Tumblr and AO3, @aimmyarrowshigh_ on Instagram where I mostly post my mediocre crafts, and @aimmyarr0wshigh on Pinterest where I save up images to eventually make aesthetic graphics or moodboards.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

Okay. I passed Y6CHR45, and... I want to say that this is very bad. I mean, that... This plot twist with Merula is very illogical and obvious. I'm not a fan of Merula, but. First, why it's obvious. Because in the storyline, Merula is our rival, not our friend. How many nasty things did she do MC, etc. Well, it's too obvious that in the future they will try to make her our enemy. Second, why it's illogical. Merula has very different goals. Don't be the same as your parents, take revenge on Rakepick and kill her, become stronger and more powerful. There is not a single point in being with 'R'. Why would she want to work with someone she wants to kill? I think it would be logical if Merula joined the Death Eaters. She and her aunt had been threatened by the Death Eaters. This is what Merula said in Y5CHR28. And Andre was talking about the mark on Merula's hand in year six, when Bill taught us the Barrier Spell. Still, I think Merula was framed by someone. Merula was still ready to drink the Truth Serum. And one more thing. Won't the MC say anything about it? Not to the professors, not to Ben, not to Jacob, not to anyone about what they saw in Knockturn Alley? Hey, JC, we have a Muggle Studies class on Y7, and there will be Merula. MC will just forget about it or what? It's just stupid. I apologize, I have nobody to express this misunderstanding of the JC logic. 🤨 And one more thing. I don't think Merula is a mole. In fact, I think the mole is Penny. Because it's very logical! 'R' could have threatening and blackmailed her, like... They could steal Beatrice, or threaten to kill her, if Penny didn't follow their instructions. Penny, in her fifth year, said she would work with anyone to save Beatrice. And if you add it up in this form... I mean, Penny is the most logical option. She's the most popular girl at Hogwarts. She knows every rumor, she knows the secrets of many students. No one will even think about it! How can you think of one who is very kind, helps everyone, understands Potions, etc? This is my theory, and honestly, I still stick to it. Knowing the character of penny, for the sake of Beatrice she would betray even MC.

I don’t know, I don’t think of it as being that illogical. I suppose it was rather obvious, but in a sense, those two ideas are in conflict with each other. If a plot twist is logical, it can be predicted. If it’s not, then it won’t be, but that’s a whole different problem. In any case, this got very long, so I’m putting it under a cut.

Was it obvious?

She has been our enemy from the start, but her character arc seemed to suggest that was changing. In a way, this actually made her a less obvious suspect. At least to me. She was the primary antagonist of Year 1, but we quickly got used to her nonsense. Stopped taking her seriously. Meanwhile, the story gave her depth. Many players grew to care for her, many pitied her, but even the ones who didn’t no longer saw her as a serious threat. At the same time, the scale was gradually increasing. By Year 5, Merula wasn’t the antagonist anymore, not just because she had been deconstructed, but because the story was darkening, and the times of a school bully being the villain were long over. Hell, by Year 2 we knew about R, and by Year 4 we had Rakepick to wonder about. Year 5 not only brought Merula’s character arc to the point where she became more of a friend (but no less prickly and combative) it also fleshed out the game’s Big Bad to the point where it became clear that this was much bigger than MC, or anyone in their year. Year 5 also exonerated Ben, and later unceremoniously killed the “Rowan is R” theory by having Rowan be imperius’d like Ben was. 

No one took Merula seriously anymore, people felt sorry for her, and we felt as though we understood her completely. That nothing she did could surprise us. This was capped off by the betrayal of Rakepick, compounded with her using the Cruciatus Curse on Merula. Because MC was betrayed, but not by any of the students. But by their mentor, who was always shady in the first place. Merula was put in a horrible position where even her greatest Antis surely felt a twinge of pity for her. Anyone left who suspected her probably wouldn’t have after that night. What’s more, it played into the idea that we understood Merula perfectly. Because she reacted exactly as one would expect her to. She regressed. Year 6 depicted her as someone firmly on our side, but predictably not someone who would be nice about it. From her jabs about Rowan, to her fawning over Jacob, people were annoyed with her, but no one suspected her. The game practically taunts the player, in hindsight, with the veritaserum scene. Because that’s just it - no one thought she would betray MC. They were worried she would go rogue, but no one doubted her loyalty. 

Why did she do it?

As for the logic of her decision, I likewise disagree. I believe Merula had every reason to join R. I don’t think that the Cabal and the Death Eaters are so different that one would make sense for her to join, and not the other, if that makes sense. She could have gone either way, but at a guess, Merula doesn’t think very highly of the Death Eaters. She refers to Voldemort by his name without a care in the world. If they really were threatening her, I feel like she wouldn’t want to cave in, but she might be attracted to joining a rival faction that could provide her (and her aunt?) with protection. If there’s one thing we know about R - it’s that they have a history of making enticing offers to children, provoking them to “prove” themselves to be accepted into the Cabal’s ranks. The description of them being her new “family” gives me cult vibes, and it really sheds some light on why Merula might have been drawn to them. She was lonely, she was angry, she wanted power...and R came along to offer her everything she wanted at the time. Whether she wants to leave now is uncertain, but if we assume that she’s been the mole since the very beginning, it’s probably way too late for her to just walk away. R would not allow that.

As to the sequence of Rakepick torturing her, we don’t yet know what was going on in that scene. Though I am feeling somewhat vindicated in the knowledge that there was more to that scene that meets the eye, just like I was sure there had to be. Perhaps Rakepick and Merula planned that whole thing, perhaps it was staged. Which would mean that Rakepick faked the spell, and Merula pretended to be tortured, and that her entire vendetta against Rakepick has been a facade. Or maybe the curse was real, but Merula agreed to it beforehand. Or maybe she knew the betrayal was coming, but Rakepick went off-script by turning her wand on Merula. Either way, if Merula’s vendetta was real, I don’t think it’s out of character for her to want revenge. Who cares if it’s someone on her side? This is Merula we’re talking about - I don’t think that would stop her. Now, if we assume she was not yet an R mole at the time (I think she was, but for the sake of argument)  then perhaps R reached out to Merula, apologized for Rakepick’s torture and promised that they did not authorize it. Promised that there would be consequences, and Merula could be the one to inflict them, if she agreed to join them. It’s a longshot, but I guess it’s possible. 

The Future.

The existence of this twist doesn’t really create any holes, I don’t think, and while it may put the writers in a tricky position moving forward, that’s not the same thing as them screwing up the continuity of the past. They’ll have to find a way to make this work, and until we see the ramifications, I’m willing to wait on judging how this arc plays out. MC will have a choice to make, certainly, in how they handle this. I can’t wait to see the dialogue. What they do next remains to be seen. Do they confront Merula? Turn her in? Or...if we want to be really sneaky, what we should do, in my opinion...is act as though nothing’s changed. Spread the word to people like Moody and Ben, but...do not let Merula catch on that we know. The way to salvage this situation, from a purely tactical perspective, is to let R believe they still have a spy at Hogwarts...but begin to feed her misinformation. Lead them astray. This is quite literally a war tactic, because hey...this is a war. Now, the issue with that is that Merula will likely face punishment once R figures out that she’s being misled...but hopefully we can save Merula before that point, and to the players who despise her - or even feel like she’d deserve it for her treachery...they probably wouldn’t care anyway.

I don’t think we can really judge based on the Muggles Studies classes, or anything that we know about Year 7. I also don’t expect Jam City to consider what we “know” and in all fairness...I mean, they don’t have to. That is unreleased content. Nothing in the data-mines is, strictly speaking, canon, or part the continuity. With the way that scene ended, it suggests that Merula won’t be returning for Year 7. Maybe. The data-mines contradict this, but data-mines don’t provide the full context. They aren’t released content, and anything could change. There were once data-mines that confirmed Skye as being in MC’s year, as well as suggesting that Murphy felt embittered about his disability. Both of these things were cut. So they’re not canon. In general, I think Jam City has a terrible approach to dealing with hackers, but one thing I will say in their defense is that they aren’t required to write their scenes based on what the fandom has discovered in the data-mines. If we’re confused, well, that’s kind of our own fault. But I’m sure everything will become clear eventually. I hope.

Penny. 

For meta reasons, I don’t see them pulling a double twist and revealing a second character to be the “real” mole, but it’s not impossible. And I’ve said all along that the Year 1 characters were the real suspects. MC unknowingly being the mole was my theory, mostly because Moody is shady as all hell. But Ben is shady too, it’s just that he had a rock-solid alibi in the form of Rakepick trying to kill him, since she couldn’t have known that Rowan would intervene. Setting aside Merula, since I’ve also said from the start that she isn’t a good liar...that leaves Penny. I really don’t think Penny is shady. I’ve never thought that. I’ll admit that she does essentially approach MC out of the blue to befriend them, but I mean...so does Ben. This happens on a much larger scale later on with Alanza. I can believe Penny would go to the ends of the earth to protect Beatrice, and maybe when she was imprisoned in the Portrait, R contacted Penny and strong-armed her into this deal. The issue is, Beatrice is safe and sound as of sixth year. The Black Lake incident is still a bit spotty, and perhaps that was R going after her again...but I just don’t think there are enough hints for me to believe it, personally. If this were true, why was Ben the character who insisted on coming to the Portrait Vault instead of Penny? She could have demanded to come along too, and no one would have blamed her. Everyone would have understood. Not to mention, Penny has severe tells when she’s stressed. She does not act like herself. She’s mostly back to normal in Year 6, and her behavior reflects that Beatrice is safe now, just pulling away. If Beatrice was still on the hot-seat, I feel like Penny would not be keeping it together. Finally, that raises the question of how much Beatrice is aware of all this. Does she know about this deal? Because I find it hard to believe she wouldn’t tell anyone.

[loveinthetimeofephemera]

My daughter asked me to pick up the Dragon Prince graphic novel, "Through the Moon" for her and at first I was reluctant. While I like DP, my enthusiasm never pitches fever like it did for Avatar: The Last Airbender or The Legend of Korra. Perhaps because it's a much more recognizable swords and sorcery fantasy setting that offers less to discover or perhaps because the anime style gags and nonsequitors that made the Avatar series so fresh for most audiences tend to overstay their welcome or cross the line into goofy/cringe material. 

The other day my daughter had her iPad privileges revoked so she decided to take advantage of what I will call "the TV loophole," and squirrel herself away in our bedroom to rewatch Dragon Prince. I was under a tight deadline so I was mostly just grateful to have my work area, which is attached to the kitchen and living room, distraction free. Three or Four hours passed and suddenly I heard this shouting. 

When I went to check on her, I found her yelling at the TV, cursing the villain for killing one of the show's hulking beasts and she ran to me in tears. It turns out that she had been skipping around watching only the parts with elves and dragons and had lost interest in Callum and Ezra and all the human stuff. I sat and watched a little with her the next day and was drawn back into the narrative. 

It was then that she asked for this graphic novel. A canon followup to season 3 that bridges the gap to the, as of this writing unreleased season 4. When the package arrived, M was still in virtual learning class, hopping around to a Spanish ditty, so I read it first. In one sitting. In like, 5 minutes. And then I read it again. It's basically just an episode of the show that they didn't bother to animate out of storyboards. 

It's great. The same naturalistic, dorky banter, the same delightful character dynamics. It reminds me a great deal of the also canon follow up to The Legend of Korra in which they put a ribbon on the adorkable same sex relationship between Korra and Asami, that the internet fans refer to as Korrasami, providing the full on steamy kiss that the show wimped out on during its Nickelodeon run. 

Here we get a similar acknowledgement of the budding romance between elf Rayla and human Callum, which finally seems primed to get out of first gear. 

The story is about resurrecting a fallen ally; the Phoenix, Phoe-phoe, which has left a single blue feather from which it can begin its life anew. Callum and the gang make the journey out to see everyone's favorite illusionist, Lujanne, but Rayla is still dealing with the grief and fear that gripped her at the end of season 3. The urge to move heaven and earth for his elfen darling proves too much for lovesick Callum so he harnessing the power of the moon, he opens the door between life and death! 

And what happens next you'll just have to read for yourself, but it makes the wait for season 4 that much more excruciating. 

[iamapoopmuffin]

Fandom: Nanbaka/Corpse Party (crossover) Genre: Horror Characters: Hajime Sugoroku, Samon Gokuu, Kiji Mitsuba, Kenshirou Yozakura, Jyugo, Uno, Nico, Rock, Tsukumo, Liang, Upa, Qi, Honey, Trois, Musashi, Sachiko Shinozaki, Ryou Yoshizawa, Yuki Kanno, Tokiko Tsuji, Yoshikazu Yanagihori, Yoshie Shinozaki, Takamine Yanagihori, some OCs to take the role of Kizami later on instead of actual Kizami Includes major character death.

Chapter 12 of ?

When Samon Gokuu had woken up in this place, he'd immediately realised his luck was at an all time low. Not only was this place obviously dangerous from the first glance, but of all the people he had to be trapped in a mysterious murder house with, of all the people fate had to push him into, and have wake him up with no manner or decorum, it had to be Hajime fucking Sugoroku.

Once they were both awake, they'd argued over their priorities in this place were. Then, they'd argued over which direction to go in first. The priorities they'd decided on were to search for the inmates, search for an exit, and gather information about their situation. As they explored, they found plenty of papers detailing bits and pieces, most of them scrawled on by half-sane victims trapped within the confines of what was apparently a haunted school. Messages to friends, messages to 'whoever finds this note', frantic scrawlings from a desperate mind, last words meant to point fingers at those who had wronged them. Little of use, other than to say it didn't look like there was much in the way of escape. Some notes spoke of being hunted down by ghosts holding weapons, or of their companions going insane and cutting them down. The most useful thing they found lying around in the halls was a newspaper clipping talking about a kidnapping.

It wasn't until they reached a room labelled 'Reference Room' that they found anything of use. When they opened the door, they found a room stacked with books, folders and old newspapers, some old, some modern. It looked like the books were taken from the school bags of some of the students who had died here - several stacks of work books with different names scrawled across them, text books and library books with the name of the library or school they'd come from on the inside cover. Hajime began sorting through the old newspapers, looking for any articles of use. Samon found himself looking at each of the books that didn't seem to belong.

"Follow up report." Hajime read aloud as he realised he had something relevant in his hands. "Says here the four kids that got kidnapped were murdered by the teacher. Cause of death was the removal of the tongues, causing death by excessive bleeding or choking. One child had the majority of her head removed, everything from the jaw up, like that one kid described the 'ghost' that was chasing her. All these newspapers and notices make reference to the school and area Number 99 spoke about in that stupid ghost story he told. Sounds like one of those stupid horror movies where you get trapped in a ghost's grudge or something like that." He looked to Samon, saw him flicking through a pink spiral notebook. "Anything useful in that?"

"Scrawled notes from some self-proclaimed ghost-hunter or supernaturalist." Samon answered offhandedly. "Most of it's about different sights, haunted hospitals, old churchyards, shit like that. Ah!" He stopped on a page. "Heavenly Host Elementary School. Shinozaki estate...super haunted...severe physical effects against the researcher...significant danger involved in research." He skimmed through the page until he found something of use. "In order to enter the cursed grounds of Heavenly Host, one only needs to anger the spirits involved. Incorrect performance of the Shinozaki charm or gossip of the spirit's death may suffice. So this girl is basically saying we're here because 99 told a ghost story. Okay...method of egress...is blank." He sighed, turned the page, and frowned. The next page was coated in bloodied fingerprints and strange marks. The writing became more frantic and messy as it went on. "...Something something girl in red dress...ghost children...ah. The ghost hunter murdered someone while she was here." That was where the notes ended, so he closed the book and went looking for another one that might be of use.

"Shinozaki..." Hajime had picked up another paper. Skimmed through it. "Says here that Sachiko Shinozaki wasn't killed."

"What?"

"She was still alive when the police got to the scene. It was with her testimony that authorities were able to convict Yanagihori of the murders of the other three children...Yanagihori was deemed unable to take responsibility for his actions and was sent to a high security psychiatric hospital." He shuffled through a few more papers. There were reports about and interviews with the families of both the victims and perpetrators.

There was nothing about Sachiko Shinozaki.

Odd. Not a single mention was made of her or her family following the incident and the arrest. Had the family been relocated for safety? Had the journalists been kept away?

"The girl, the supernaturalist, put a lot of emphasis on Shinozaki." Samon pointed out. "The haunted Shinozaki estate, the Shinozaki charm, the Shinozaki grudge...I guess it's possible she tried to curse someone out of anger after witnessing all that..."

"There's nothing else about her after that. It says here journalists tried to force their way into Tsuji's father's place of work in order to interview him, so they clearly didn't care too much about their privacy."

"They never do." He picked out a book and read the name scrawled on the front. It was another journal someone had brought in with them, and the kanji seemed familiar. "Ki...biki Kou...I think. It's the name of the person the supernaturalist mentioned. The one she murdered when she came here." He flicked it open to a random page, shook his head and started flicking through for anything of use.

"The perpetrator is reported to have escaped his hospital and hanged himself. At least we know what happened to him." He tossed the last paper aside with a sigh. "Anything in that guy's journal?"

"The four missing children were found in a disused basement room, officially sealed away after construction." Samon read word for word from the journal, sounding disinterested. "When authorities gained entry, they were greeted with an inhumanely horrific sight. Based on the evidence at hand, the murder weapon was determined to be a large pair of sewing scissors found in the hands of the accused. Investigators suspected some hesitation on the man's part, as the victims' wounds indicated his full strength had not been used. Nonetheless, it was clear he had acted with extreme malicious intent. Cause of death was listed as loss of blood following removal of the tongues, but the truth is not so clinical, or if it can be believed, not quite as pleasant." He hesitated. The next part detailed exactly how each child had been killed. To cut it short, he could just say each was stabbed repeatedly. "The details are taken from information previously unreleased to the public. Uhh...bearing witness to this all was seven-year-old Sachiko Shinozaki, in many ways the most pitiable and long-suffering one of them all. It was through her tearful and frightened testimony that Yanagihori was officially charged. Going back to information on this unfortunate girl's whereabouts, it is understandable that sensitive information pertaining to her and her family would be withheld. What is harder to understand, however, is that there's not even the slightest trace of this information to find...as if it never existed..."

"As if it never existed?" Hajime got to his feet and stretched. "So the records were destroyed?"

"Maybe." Samon scanned a few more pages. "Says here the perpetrator had no motive for the crime, and was seen as a friendly and gentle soul before this event. His father was the principal. Around the time of the murders, Takamine Yanagihori began speaking gibberish, scrawling nonsense on the walls, hiding in his office and acting severely paranoid, so it's believable that his son also simply 'lost his mind'."

"I don't think these murder reports are doing us any good."

"The fact that they're plastered all over the place must mean something..."

"But until we find out what makes them so significant, we can't really take much from all this."

"Hang on, there's another mention of curses in here."

"You believe in curses?"

"No, but there's something they're calling a curse, some energy, and that's worth something, right? If we can find out what, exactly, that is, we're one step closer to finding a way out." He skimmed through the writing in the journal again. "Here: 'I believe we're looking at a curse far more powerful than anything man could devise. From the day this school first opened its doors, to the day it closed them forever, Heavenly Host Elementary's basement room has existed as some kind of cursed ground. To find the underlying cause, we must go back, back beyond the infamous kidnapping and murder case. Back a whole twenty years. Since the school has been demolished, and another built in its place, it is no longer possible to investigate the basement room directly, but my protege may have discovered the next best thing.' So if we found the basement room of this place, we might have more clues."

"Great. The basement room."

Any further info they tried to seek from within the reference room brought them no closer to understanding their situation or the way out. Some more arguing on their next move, and they found themselves walking across the second floor, towards where they were sure they'd seen an infirmary before. It made sense to make a place like that a base to meet up in, since it would have some fairly important supplies. It was as they crossed toward the east side of the building that the two of them saw their first ghost.

It was a little boy, stood on the far side of a hole in the floor, staring at them. Following gut instinct, Samon pulled the brim of his cap low and avoided looking at the child's face. Something inside him just told him it would be a bad idea. The child called out to them, garbled words, barely words at all, as if he was making sound with no way to shape it.

As if he had no tongue.

It had stated, in the info that Samon had read but not read aloud, that the killer had removed his victims' tongues, like some kind of trophy. It was as if this was one of the victims, though without seeing the boy's face, Samon couldn't say anything for sure.

"Whatever you do, do not look him in the eye." He warned Hajime as he continued walking.

"You couldn't have mentioned that before?!"

"Did you seriously just look that thing in the eye?!"

Turning swiftly on his heel, Samon found Hajime stood opposite the ghost child, rigid and with a look somewhere between fury and bewilderment on his face. He was definitely looking the thing in the eye, and he wasn't blinking.

The ghost boy spoke again. "Cmmme wupffmeee..."

He took a step towards the hole.

"Hajime?" Another step. "Hajime! What the hell are you doing now?"

"I...can't...control it. I can't stop!"

Samon moved closer, trying to survey the situation. The child was occupied with Hajime, and likely wouldn't meet his eyes if he looked at his face, but he would still rather not chance it, and kept his field of vision low. The child had his hand outstretched, as if he was beckoning his victim closer, over to where the wood got weaker, over into the hole. Of course, if Hajime kept walking, he would all too soon find himself falling. The guard was pretty resilient, so there was every chance he would survive such a fall, but it was best to avoid testing that theory out.

Step. Step. Step. He seriously couldn't stop, no matter how hard he tried to fight it. It was almost as if the moment he'd made eye contact with that child, he'd been taken over. Loathe as he was to appear lacking in the willpower department, he really couldn't struggle against this. Nothing he tried to do seemed to have even the slightest affect.

Hajime felt a tug on the back of his uniform. An arm around his waist, trying to haul him back. Samon was trying to pull him back away from the hole. Step. Step. Step. He heard boots dragging against the wooden floor as Samon failed to keep him still, got dragged along after him. His toe tipped over the edge of the hole. One more step and he would fall. All he could see was the wide eyes of the child with no tongue.

And then nothing. Black in his vision. He wasn't falling, he wasn't walking, and it seemed something was over his eyes. It took him a moment to register what, exactly, had happened. Realising that it was eye contact keeping Hajime under control, Samon had thrown one arm over his eyes to break that contact. And by some stupid miracle, it worked. He heard the child hissing at them, and felt Samon attempt to step back. Hajime followed, stepping back a few times in time with him, and then turning away from the hole suddenly enough that Samon, raised up on his toes in order to cover the taller man's eyes, overbalanced and hit the floor. He managed to recover well, and was up on his feet again almost instantly.

"You asshole! You did that on purpose!"

"You're seriously going to start whining now?! What did you expect me to do, walk backwards for the rest of my life?!

"If you weren't dumb enough to look that thing in the eye, we wouldn't have that problem in the first place!"

"If you knew it was dangerous, you should have said!"

"I did say!"

"Yeah, and only seven years too late!"

"Quit exaggerating, you dumb gorilla!"

"Who're you calling a gorilla?!"

When the boy across the hole started to moan, the two guards seemed to have a silent agreement pass between them to walk as they continued their argument, and to spew abuse at each other at a lower volume.

Focused as they were on trading verbal blows, they let their feet carry them across to the east side of the building, eventually coming out at the corridor leading to the infirmary and science lab. In this dimension, too, the splattered remains decorated the far wall, and the guards gave the blood and whatnot a wide berth. Trying the door to the science lab wielded little result. The door was locked, and from behind it drifted a peculiar smell. Frying meat, if they had to find a way to describe it. Someone cooking something. Bizarre and out of place.

"An infirmary would be a good place to make base." Hajime stated when the two stepped inside. It was dusty, but free of corpses, and access to medical supplies was nothing to be sneered at. Items littered the floor, and he looked down as one hit his foot. Or, well, his foot hit it. On the floor lay a festival doll, dressed in a red dress and matching bonnet. He glanced over at Samon, who had gone to the back wall, crouched down to look at something else on the floor. "Find something shiny, boy?"

"Shut up!" The monkey stood, holding up what he had found. "Someone's personal effects. Glasses, broken. Look a lot like the ones Number 71 wears, but that doesn't tell us anything for sure. This here is medical, clearly a prescription...if I can find a name...not sure what this is." He turned over the objects in his hands. Hajime looked back at the stupid doll. It looked like something Hitoshi would probably gush over. "Oh shit-!"

Samon was looking at one of the beds. Hajime followed his eye and saw the ghost child curled up in the corner, staring at the bedframe. It was the same child from before.

"Don't look it in the eyes, right?"

"Right. I think it might be following us."

"Guess we can cross off the infirmary for possible safe spaces then."

"We should go."

"Well, duh."

"Turn...west...six...paces..."

The voice came from neither of them. It was a tinny, robotic voice, speaking in a set rhythm. If Hajime didn't know any better, he'd say it was coming from the doll in his hands.

Having apparently come to the same conclusion, Samon came over and poked it. "Six paces west?" He repeated with a frown.

"That's what it said." West, if he was correct, was the door out of the infirmary, so they would have to follow the instructions given that far at least.

"Where do you think it's leading us?"

"It's a doll."

Regardless of his statement that the doll wasn't trying to tell them shit, Hajime kept it with him when they left.

"North...eight...paces..."

Samon turned and began walking toward the pile of guts across the far wall.

"What are you doing, Monkey?"

He stopped, looked back. "Following the doll. And don't call-"

"You want to follow the doll?"

"I-"

"It said eight paces, dumbass. You took nine."

"I did not!"

Hajime counted out eight paces, and even with his larger stride ended up a step behind Samon. "You were saying?"

"Your steps are just too small. You're doing that on purpose!"

"My top priority is not messing with your inability to count, it's to get out of here alive."

"I can count just fine!"

"Bullshit, you can't even count to eight!"

"I took eight steps!"

"East...four...paces..."

"Can you handle counting to four?"

"Hajime!"

It was clear from the specific instructions from the doll that someone was intending to lead them somewhere. Though they couldn't deny something odd was going on here, the sceptical part of their minds tried to come up with some logical explanation for things. It was a prerecorded message intended to start in the infirmary. The ghosts weren't real. That sort of thing. Regardless, Hajime turned the doll over in his hands and found a name written on the back.

Yoshikazu Yanagihori

The killer. Hajime mentally prepared himself for any trap that they may be walking into.

The doll's instructions led them back to the staircase that had taken them up to the reference room. At the last pace, Hajime found himself stood over uneven ground, or rather over a single conspicuous lump in the floor. The guards stared at the doll a moment, awaiting another command. It made a sound, like weeping, but said nothing more. The supervisor tested the bump in the ground with his foot before stepping back and dropping to his knee, choosing to check beneath the warped board. He pulled it up and found a blood stained bag underneath.

The doll spoke once more. "Please...save the children..."

"Save the children?" Hajime repeated as he stood.

"Why would it say that?"

"It belongs to the killer. Or belonged, is more accurate. It has his name sewn to the back. If we take this to be something other than a prerecorded message, since nothing makes sense here anyway...sounds like it could be guilt or remorse over the murders. Since the guy's dead himself, all he can do is lead investigators to any hidden remains." He handed the bag to Samon. "Check what's in that. If it's not him expressing remorse or whatever, it could be anyone's voice, just so long as they want us to save the kids. It could also refer to people trapped here, since the vast majority of bodies here are school kids."

"The bag has a name on it...Yo...Yoshi...zawa? Hard to tell, with the blood." Reluctantly, he opened the bag as told. "Ugh...hidden remains is right...it's a tongue."

"The murderer killed the kids by removing their tongues."

"Actually, according to that Kibiki guy's research, the tongues were removed post-mortem. But if the kids are already dead, why remove the tongue? As a trophy? What does the tongue signify?"

"I don't know...talking? Taste? What are we even supposed to do with the kid's tongue?"

Samon shrugged and drew the bag closed. "The supernaturalist with the pink notebook, she said people were dragged here for pissing off the ghosts or whatever."

"So we make them less pissed off, they let us go?"

"You think?"

"Not really, no. But if the tongue belongs to one of the murdered kids, then with the kid is where it belongs."

"So we give it back to Yoshizawa."

"Exactly."

[enygma0710]

Drabble Tag Challenge

If you’re tagged on this, you’ve been challenged to write a 100 words or more drabble of Jonerys!

You then earn the right to tag 3 people on your drabble and challenge them to do it as well. Not mandatory, but this is a fun and easy way to encourage creators and spread more fan content!  

Pick from the dialogue prompts -OR- Free choice drabble.

Tagged by @thescarletgarden1990 thanks for challenging me ;-D and I am challenging @xxthewolvenstormxx  @freshhexes  and @starkgaryen4life 

If you’ve been tagged, my feelings wont be hurt if it’s ignored. So before I drop this drabble, I feel I need to give a disclaimer, LOL

Drabbles are my Kryptonite, like legit every story I write I have to build up these extensive ass backstories for the universe and the characters and how they will react to a situation and function in the universe i’m either playing in or modifying. So that being said, this drabble takes place in my unreleased, modern AU Jonerys fic; Once in a Lifetime. Thats where my mindset is right now, I wrote two others in the traditional Westeros but it just didn’t work. 2nd disclaimer; this is a really random af drabble, I write some random shit but this is more than usual. See Authors note at bottom for explanation. 

I will probably put this on A03 once I get the main fic on there, but at a much later date.  

My prompt: “ Have you lost your damn mind?” and 

“I think I’m in love with you and I’m terrified” -slightly modified

Robb and Jon whooped and clapped, as they watched the larger man, dressed in bright blue spandex, swing his opponents like a rag doll as his power ball bounced off the rim, missing the basket. “I can’t believe your brother recorded these.” Robb elbowed Jon to pass the chips. Jon begrudgingly passed the bowl over to Robb.

Daenerys plopped down on the couch behind them. “Rhae loved Westerosi Gladiators growing up. My father got tired of Rhae recording over his westerns, so for his birthday he gave him a case of VHS tapes and let him go to town.” Dany reached for the bowl, snatching it away from Robb. “He recorded everything; Gladiators, Old WWF and EWF matches, cartoons, movies, music videos. He only stopped because my father refused to buy him another case of tapes.”

Jon turned away from the action of Atlasphere on the screen, to look at his friend. “These are classics, they don’t show the reruns anymore.” Robb cheered loudly, bringing Jon’s attention back to the show.

“They show them all the time in Naath,” Missy chimed in as she sat down next to Dany on the couch. “This is an early season, Storm’s not in it.”

“I like The Mountain, I heard he’s the only gladiator that no one has knocked off on ‘Human Cannonball’”

“Makes sense, you see the size of that guy?” Jon asked, as he grabbed his drink. “I like Nitro and Gemini, I wouldn’t want to go against either of them in Powerball.”

“Oh, I love Storm, Zap is my favorite.” Dany was bouncing up and down. Jon looked back and laughed at how excited she was getting. “Oh, they are about to do Joust! Watch Zap!”

They focused back on the TV and watched as the blond gladiator pummeled her opponent off her platform into the mat below. “Ohhhhhh! That was brutal, I wonder if they’ll do Hang Tough this episode.”

“You know we could do that.”

“Do what?” Jon asked.

“Hang Tough, there are rings at the playground down the street.” Robb turned to Jon. “Feel up to the challenge?”

Jon smirked, setting down his drink. “I’m game if your game, Stark.”

Robb jumped up. “Let’s go.”

Daenerys stood next to Missy, watching the two ‘brothers’ warm up before their match of makeshift Hang Tough. She left Missy walking over towards Jon, shaking her head. “Have you lost your damn mind?”

“Never knew you to be one that cursed, Dany.” Jon grinned, rolling his shoulders. Robb next to him doing push-ups.  Both of them had just gotten off punishment after pulling another stunt they tried, after watching an old EWF match. Mrs. Stark walked in on Jon and Robb doing a body slam with a stunner while Arya and Bran cheered on.

“Oh, shut it,” Dany rolled her eyes. “You two are bigger idiots than I thought, the only idiot missing is Theon.”

“You rang?” Theon sauntered over, giving Robb a high five.

“Oh Gods,” Missy muttered.

Theon grinned, “I stopped by and Sansa told me, you guys were here, but for what? I thought we were watching Gladiators.”

“I challenged Jon to Hang Tough.”

“Snow?” Theon’s face split into a shit eating grin, clapping his hands. “Oh, this I got to see.”

Jon and Robb stood at opposite sides of the small ring course.

“Ready, set, GO!”

Robb and Jon launched themselves onto the rings, swinging towards each other. Jon was the quickest and met Robb first. They both started kicking at each other, laughing trying to knock the other off the rings. Dany watched with some trepidation as the brothers tried to take the other down.  Theon kept jumping up and down egging Robb on to take Jon down and would switch when Jon got the advantage, causing Robb to yell “Who’s friend are you?”. Missy stood behind Dany, alternating between cheering on Jon and muttering “Gods this is stupid”. Daenerys kept silent and didn’t cheer on either but was the first to notice the gleam in Robbs eye change from determined to mischievous. Robb kicked away from Jon, swinging his legs behind him, gaining fast momentum and before Jon could react, Robb swung his leg forward, wrapping his legs around Jon’s waist, simultaneously letting go of his rings. The force of Robb colliding with Jon, ripped the rings from Jon’s grip sending them both hurtling towards the ground and landing with a crash.

“Oh SHITE!!!” Dany yelled as they hit the ground, she ran over to the tangled limbs of Robb and Jon.

Robb’s eyes were closed, he winced holding his head. “Oh Gods,”

“Are you alright?”

“Told you this was stupid.”

Robb nodded and tried to move but Jon was sprawled on top of his legs.

“Jon?”

Jon didn’t answer, his arm laid at an odd angle.

“Oh, shite did you break it.”

“I don’t think so.”

Jon tried to push himself up but faltered, landing hard on Robbs legs, “Shite.”

“It’s dislocated,” Dany stated as she squatted down next to Jon.

“How the hell do you know this?”

“My Father has a bad shoulder, it dislocates occasionally. It needs to be reset Jon.”

Jon gingerly rolled off Robbs legs. “No, I’ll be fine.” He used his good arm to stand up.

“That fall did more than dislocate your shoulder, it rattled your brain as well. Let me reset it.”

“Can’t you bang it against the wall or something?”

“No, Theon and shut up, Jon I can set it for you.”

“No,” Jon winced. “I’ll just ask Uncle Benjen, he’s visiting today, he’ll know what to do.”

“No,” Robb rasped as he stood up and limped. “You know Father is out of town and if he finds out we got injured from rough housing again- “

“We’re Fucked.”

Jon turned hesitantly towards Dany, his shoulder was throbbing and his fingers were growing numb.

“Do you trust me?”

He locked his gaze on hers and saw the determination and resolve reflected in them. He nodded. Dany tightly gripped his right hand with her left and placed her right hand over his right shoulder. “Its going to hurt but only for a minute, ready?”

“Just do it.” He gritted out.

“On the count of three, one-two-three,” Dany swiftly jerked his arm up and towards her, Jon yelled over the audible pop of his shoulder going back in its socket. He was sore, his fingers were still numb but she was right the pain was brief. “Thanks.” He panted.

Daenerys let go of his hand, giving a shiny grin. “Anytime Snow.”

Later, they found themselves slowing making their way back towards the Starks residence. In front of them, Theon was helping a limping Robb. Daenerys and Missy walking beside him. “Well we’ll see you guys later.”

“You aren’t coming with us? What about the tapes?”

“No, I’m going to walk Missy home and Rhae won’t mind.” Daenerys smiled and reached over, chuffing him on the side of his head.

“What was that for?” Jon winced.

“That’s for not listening to me and being an idiot.” She smirked, her lavender eyes bright. “Bye Snow,” she waved and turned away from him, walking towards Missy.

Jon stood on the sidewalk, quietly observing Dany and Missy. A warm, tingling sensation clawing at his chest,  

“Oi, you alright?” Theon voice snapped Jon from his thoughts.

The smile gone and replaced with a scowl. No, I don’t think so, far from it.

Theon and Robb, now stood beside him. Both looking back and forth between Jon and the duo walking away.

“Why do you look like you swallowed a bit of bitter?”

What the hell is wrong with me? “Nothing, just worried about getting caught by your Mother.”

Theon nodded in understanding, but Robb just stared, giving a disbelieving look. Jon cough, rubbing his neck. “Let’s just get home and come up with a story that won’t get us both grounded for a week.”

The boys continued on their way, devising a story to keep the suspicion low on their injuries. As for Jon his thoughts drifted off, away from the Theon and Robb, but to his silver hair friend and the curious new feeling she caused, Shite I think I’m in love and I’m terrified.

Author Notes: So this drabble is damn near a one-shot. I tend to write alot, LOL. I got inspiration while cleaning and came across several episodes we recorded as kids of Double Dare, GUTS, Legends of the Hidden Temple and American Gladiators. Hooked up probably the last working VCR and watched for nostalgia. So that’s how American Gladiators came to Westeros LOL